And that's why I asked. The metal appears 'ripped' and the top of pleates the same (ie:'ripped' too), making them look horrible. That skews the picture we see. IE; if it was cut by by an oil filter cutter or similar it would not look the same.....and that's the difference that makes it impossible, IMHO, to judge anything by looking at that pic. Probably just as hard in person.

You need to use an oil filter cutter tool so you do not get all those very fine metal shavings (metallic color) all over the pleats and down in the filter from cutting open with a sawzall or cut off tools. We use oil filter cutters all the time and to cut open all fuel filters to.

Plus the oil filter cutter tool cuts off just above the base, Not jagged cuts into the pleats

Good pic of more properly cut open filters:
1st, a typical filter cutter, although many other styles....pretty much all styles use rolling cutting wheels like a can opener:

Ah yea, in light of that the sawzall hack isn't going to help much. ��

Why does it look like a cheep filter? Looks like a GM or Mercruiser Plastic insert? How to check for cheep oil?

By looks.

LOL !

Sorry Black Baja. That part was funny !

This is the oil in it now.

Your problems I don't think are oil related. The oil filter is collapsed. Look for brass if none run it again and check oil filter.

Kinda tough to tell if it is actually collapsed after murdering it with a sawzall, but I suspect it was as I have a ZZ502 cam with OEM manifolds so it was definitely sucking water. It was a mercruiser filter though.

The bummer is I have a tubing cutter good for that size. Bummer.

No doubt that its pushed together. Just look at the rest of the filter. Are you salt water or fresh?