Thread: The (eventual) definitive oil filter guide

I used the PureONE purolators and I thought they were great.

I use Nissan stock 65FOC on The P11 and used them on the VE'd B15 as well. I've never had an issue with these Chinese made filters. I figure if Nissan was confident enough to use them on a brand new VQ35 engine and give it the same full warranty, the filters can't be all that bad. Yes, I have seen the inside of the filters. Having said that, I have never personally known somebody that had a 65F filter collapse or fail. I am not saying it hasn't happened, just that I haven't seen or heard of any specific failures of these filters (when used within the regular set conditions/mileage intervals). The one time I put an aftermarket filter on the B15 (in a pinch), I had an oil pressure issue. In the future, I might run a premium aftermarket filter on the VE.

On a side note, here is a link to an oil filter comparison study. The study was for oil filters for a truck with a 5.7 Vortec engine, so they are certainly the larger style filters and not the filters we would normally put on our SR20's. With that being said, the filters being tested are within the same series/size range (all for the same truck), so the findings should be accurate enough to compare the different manufacturers.

Oil filter comparison Study.

Study final results and filter ratings.

Here are the top ten and bottom five filters, as rated by this study. The commonly referred to as better filters are mostly at the top of the heap with a couple of surprises mixed in.
(Price is a factor in the final rankings)

TOP TEN:

1) Fram Extended Guard - 3.49
2) Mobil 1 - 3.27
3) Royal Purple - 3.09
4) K&N - 3.02
5) Amsoil - 3.02
6) Napa Pro Select - 2.87
7) Wix - 2.82
8) Napa Gold - 2.81
9) Purolator Classic - 2.74
10) Purolator Pure One - 2.63


BOTTOM FIVE:

1) Shell - 0.44
2) AC Delco - 0.80
3) STP - 0.81
4) Proline - 1.49
5) Fram High Mileage - 1.53


I don't think that any one particular oil filter study can definitively answer the question of which filter is the best. When comparing different factors and while under different test conditions, the variables will always change the final results. Having said that, the usual suspects more often than not are at the top of the pile.

@B15NEOVVL very informative, and I agree with you completely. Lastly you brought up the topic of oil pressure the volume of the oil filter also has a minute affect on oil pressure.

WELL MINE HAS A BIG NUT ON IT!!! lol!!

should atleast make it easy to remove

I have a bunch of Japanese Nissan ones that go on my highport DE.
On the VE,I use the same filter as My frontier...Mobil1 M-110.
The M-108 is what the VE/lowport filter is listed as,but the M-110 is the same diameter and thread pitch,just slightly taller....so slightly more capacity....and it makes it easy to have all the same filters for the VE and Truck.
I just buy M-110 filters for both to keep it simple.It cant hurt to have alittle more capacity in the VE.

I use full synthetic oil and change at 5000 mile intervals.
Nothing but Mobil 1 in the truck since new,after 15,000 miles running Dino Mobil oil changed at 3000 miles for break in.
I use mostly Mobil1 or German castrol(when available) in the SR cars ,until recently I switched to Rotella synthetic in the VE NX before the convention,and am probably gonna keep using it since it seems like Mobil1 has been making changes to their formulas .

Something to consider with Subaru filters, they have a much higher bypass valve pressure rating. It's rated at about 24 psi (real world shown about 19psi). Which means they would be better for high oil pressure oil pumps.

I'm not sure at what the factory Nissan filters are rated at, but it's probably closer to aftermarket ones which are usually around 10psi.

Good thread. I can't believe that all these years later, oil filters are still talked about. LOL

Here's an oldie from back in 1998 after the SE-R mailing list was trying to get the lowdown on some various filters, what fit, what didn't, and why. One thing that I see at the beginning of this thread is having filters marked as 'low port' and 'high port', but I think some of that may be incorrect.

The B13 chassis, both low port and high port, used the same filter. For example, the Purolator L14477 is in the Purolator catalog for '91-'94 Sentra SE-R. Fram lists the PH4386 for the '91-'94 SE-R also. What was shared for all of these years was the diameter and thread pitch of the tube the filter screws on to, for the B13, this was 3/4-16, but with the B14 this changed to M20x1.5.

These thread pitches are rather close, but they are not exact, and while you can actually screw on the wrong filter, I've heard of folks with oil leaks or the filter blowing off as a result.