I am getting ready to drop in my new 400 sb in the next few days. I installed a Melling high volume oil pump in the engine. Will I have to run a special oil filter with that pump or will a regular oil filter work fine?

Get one made by Wix. Carquest and Napa are made by Wix.

K&N makes a nice oil filter, thicker gauge housing with a 1" hex made into it.

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Don~ ZZ430DropTop (http://hometown.aol.com/zz430droptop67rs) Pro-Touring.com DropTop (http://pro-touring.com/featured_cars/Camaro/Don%20Seefeldt%2067%20Camaro/don_seefeldt.htm)
67 RS/SS Convertible, 70 RS/Z28

Here's a link to an oil filter study that was posted in a previous thread. There's a lot of good info here.
http://members.xoom.com/minimopar/oilfilterstudy.html

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Scott
'69 400SB, Richmond 5-speed
www.geocities.com/sdenning1 (http://www.geocities.com/sdenning1)

thats a great link, i always wanted to comare many differnt filter designs, looks like ac is #1.

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chris
1980 Z/28
(under construction)

I like AC's or Hastings. They have survied the 90 psi start ups in my circle track car for years.

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Sam

1984 4X4 s-10.
327 / 340hp, 340 ft lbs
700-r4 tranny 3.73 posi

There are a couple things about that "study" that bother me. There isn't actually an measurement of oil filter performance. He's just cut some apart, and compared the surface area of the element and the general construction and materials. We don't know how they flow, and we don't know how they filter, and we don't even really know how durable they are. (Do all the elements flow the same for a given surface area - do they all filter the same???) He's just basing lots of conclusions on appearances and a few physical measurements, but with none of the measurements that really matter. Do the end caps need to be made of steel to stand up??? Do you get some extra flow through them???

Put it this way. If I'm going to make a milk carton I'm probably better off making it out of cardboard than steel. One material's as quality a material as the other, depending on the application. Just looking at it doesn't tell you which is which, WITHOUT some quantifiable data, or specific experience. Just "I've seen steel, and I've seen cardboard, and steel is better" doesn't cut it.

I'm not an oil filter rep, retailer, engineer, or otherwise. And I'm not hung up on one particular brand (though I've certainly heard AC recommended and Fram panned - though I've frequently used Fram - they're everywhere). But that so-called "study" is about as much a "study" as my six year old's rock collection - "this one's black, and that one's redish...these are bigger, and that one's little...and that one's my favorite".

Give me a break. That guy needs to stick to circuits, or whatever he "engineers".

Is there a reason you put a high volume oil pump in your car?

The performance rebuild kit that I bought came with it.

huck, i sort of agree but its still more info than we had before. cameron, you are running a deep oil pan right? i thought of running a hi vol. pump and aftermarket pan but in the end i opted for stock and stock.

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chris
1980 Z/28
(under construction)

No, I used the stock oil pan. My concern for the oil filter is not how good at filtering the oil the filter is. My concern is that my oil pump will collapse a regular oil filter. So, can I run a regular oil filter (I use Purolator Pure Ones on my daily driver truck) or do I need some sort of high pressure oil filter with reinforcement behind the pleats?

my concern with stock pan and hivol pump would be sucking the pan dry under heavyload.
in other words the filter wont be a problem but that stock pan definetly will be.

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chris
1980 Z/28
(under construction)

That would definitely be a problem. Does anyone else here agree of disagree with the Mechanic? I have heard that it would and wouldn't pump the pan dry, mostly that it wouldn't. The Melling high volume pump is a very popular pump. The documentation that came with it said nothing about requiring a performance oil pan.

I have seen an engine with a high volume pump and stock oil pan actually lose oil pressure at high rpm and thought it was pumping the pan dry. I use stock pumps and stock pans and have not had a problem. That is my personal opinion but Melling says otherwise -- take a look at their web site..... http://www.melling.com/techbul1.html

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Joe

Thanks for the replies. I have decided to run a PF25 oil filter since it clears the headers the best.