bmc

what is the best oil filter on A 500efi

07DominatorSS

I believe the AMSOIL EAO 25 or EAO 24 would be your "best" option. Whatever you buy, don't let it be a FRAM!

tinman565

I like the K &N filter. I'd also like to kick the president of Fram filters right in the onions.

Budman II

iTrader: (1)

A lot of people are running the NAPA Gold series filters - supposedly they are made by the same people who make the WIX filters. They are supposed to have synthetic media instead of paper, which is supposed to be less susceptible to clogging if any water goes through it. I haven't cut one open to verify this, just going by what I have read.

Do a Google search on "best oil filter", or even a similar search on this site, and you will turn up a lot of information. There have been several people who went to the trouble of buying a bunch of filters and cutting them open for comparison. Trouble is, they may make them differently for different part numbers.

jmaxness

Make sure whatever you use is a "Hi Flow" variety. Merc had this figured out years ago as Merc filters are typically a pretty loose filter as far as filtering, thus more flow. Keep in mind a good tight filter that does not flow real well allows less oil thorugh filter, MORE oil through bypass....thus LESS oil gets to the cooler. Seen pretty dramatic oil temp drops just by changing from regular automotive filter to a higher "flow" filter, puts cooler back to work.

Raylar

Just so we stay correct on information here. I don't believe that statement that the standard Merc filters are "looser" filtering and flow more oil.
The part on a big block oil system that determines how much oil goes thru the filter and then thru the cooler is the oil by-pass valve that's installed in the engine. Certain oil filters also have a by-pass incorporated in them for by-pass due to filter clogging but this is pretty rare on most marine performance engines due to short interval change and service.
The standard GM stock type are the 11 psi units which when they are exposed to more than an 11 pound pressure drop across the filter and cooler (occurs quite frequently during engine operation) will open and allow a lot of oil to go directly back to the engine by-passing the filter and cooler. Not all the oil but probably 50 to 60%. If the engine was assembled with the 30 psi pressure drop by-pass valves then more of the oil will go thru the filter and cooler until the pressure drop exceeds 30 pounds at which point the by-pass would open and allow a great deal of oil to go back directly to the engine ,not cooled and unfiltered.
This is the reason we use the 30 pound by-pass valves in all our engine builds. The GM part number for this part is 25013759.
I've seen and heard of a lot of engine builds where this by-pass was either left out all together or the 11 lb was used by mistake to replace a 30lb unit that was originally installed by Merc Racing or other engine builders and oil overheating shows up very quickly.
There are also external oil cooler hose threaded openings on the lower pan rail of Gen 6 and Gen 7 GM BBC engines and this also adds the second by-pass valve to control these ports with oil flow routing at pressure drop.
If you are going to practice engine builds yourself or with a shop who does not know the system in the block you are using, make it a point to look at the diagrams available for oil flow and passages in the BBC and familiarize yourself with the pressured oil flow schematics and passage routing and location of by-passes and fittings on your block! It may save you an engine!!

The Devil Is In the Details!
This is why professional engine builders really earn their money!
This is also why we see so many posts on OSO about boat owners with engine problems!
Performance Marine engine building= GET GOOD or DON'T DO IT!!

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

DirtyJohnson

I have always wondered about filters. Last year I came across Pure Power. They are washable and seem to be very good. Kelly there will talk oil and filters all day with you. He says all paper filters are junk and don't really filter. Is there some truth to this or is that a sales pitch? He also likes to throw out that they are FAA approved and no one else is. Even Canton has something similar but there's is a replaceable element. If someone has some feedback on those filters that would be great before I throw out some money on them. I don't think I would be a good test candidate for you guys either.

stevesxm

gee... i ran fram for 25 years in every form of racing there is without a single failure of any kind. after the 24 hours of daytona, with the v6 buick motors making 450 hp spinning 7700 rpm for 24 hours would come apart with the bores and cranks looking brand new... i guess those fram things are just no good at all. oh wait a minute... this is MARINE stuff where everything is MAGIC... i forgot that...

bmc

I was running A Merc. racing filter and was geting hi. oil temp.
The oil was supper dirty wtth less then 10 hrs. on it.
I went back to Mobil-1 302 and cleaned the oil cooler, oil temp is way down, do you think the filter had sonthing to do with the temp. Also the pres. was way down but I think It was because of the Hi. oil temp. Everthing is back to norm. but what about the oil filter I have benn running the M-1 for 4 years.

Ironmanwb

I was just going to ask this very question. I have a 502 mag efi fully bone stock with 800hrs. Runs fine but i want to make it last another season or two before I refresh it. I have not leaned on it very hard yet but I did run it @ 3500-4000 RPM for about a 25 minute streach. Pressure dropped down to 20psi at idle . I ran the idle up to 1000 rpm to get the pressurs back and the oil temp down from 240 back to 160 then I went back to the 600 rpm idle and had 40+ psi. I repeated this a couple times and it seems when the oil gets hot the pressure drops.

I would like to know what oil and filter I should be running.

Thanks in advance.