Oil filter question please help!

[tgzzzz]

TG
Yes it needs repeating
day in & day out the same questions keep on coming up.
Many of which are because instead of consulting a mechanic or a forum associated with a site like this they go looking at You Tube videos the bulk of which are trash uploaded to inflate the already over inflated egos of the poster or to suck the fools in and make lots of money.
The fact that there is so much confusion, misinformation & general distrust is confirmed that the simple question posted by Douglas that should have been answered in 2 or 3 replies is now 7 pages long .
For the fun of it and to have a resource to point others to I started a thread You tube videos worth watching
I think we got to about 8 so that speaks volumes when you consider there is over 4000 people on this forum and over 200,000 mower videos on You Tube .
I always liked the quote from "a Fish Called Wanda " apes can read they just do not understand what they are reading and that applies to some where around 80 % of You tube videos , that trash filter reveal being a perfect example .
Sorry about the spelling , since I bleed out & got revived 3 times some parts of the grey cells do not work as good as they could and I ended up being quite innumerate & the dyslexia became chronic so the spelling suffers and of course I use English not American so there are a lot of words spelt correctly that American spell checkers bring up as being wrong then auto correct to a totally different word .
And I am not hot & bothered but some times you have to yell because people are just not listening or to wake up a closed sleeping mind .
After all I am not the one with a broken mower or in this case getting ulcers over a trivial point that does not matter , eithe filter would have ben fine as by & large the filters do very little .

Thanks for the courteous reply. I haven't looked here but some sites have a "sticky" post at the beginning explaining FAQs to alleviate the problem. When that kind of question comes up, the first reader refers the noob to the sticky.

I've noticed that on the net, some questions are actually just a request to chat about the topic. That's how it goes to seven pages ... it's fun. For this thread, I don't believe the OP really didn't know about filter # cross references. What he MAYBE didn't know was he already had a better filter than OE.

I find YouTube very helpful as a reference tool, and use it. As an entertainment site? No thanks. Cheers!

 

[bertsmobile1]

Any one can be wrong
I am just as capable of making mistakes as any body else and try to fess up to them when I do .
However there is no excuse for spreading misinformation on the scale that You Tube & Face Book do
Even worse is that posters become some sort of guru's in the eyes of their followers who believe every word that is posted is the gospel truth
Last year a popular poster put up a history of BSA that was so full of mistakes it was not funny.
Several people posted comments to correct the errors , without being nasty or abusive
I got over 5,000 abusive posts from his disciples and another person, far more knowledgable that I copped even more plus trolling and abusive emails to family members .
Now I have seen this totally wrong information popping up all over the place and our corrections seems to have been pulled .
This is the big problem with things like You Tube, they stay there forever and fiction becomes fact despite it being pure fantasy

 

[tgzzzz]

“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.”​

― Herman Melville, Moby Dick

 

[Hammermechanicman]

"However there is no excuse for spreading misinformation on the scale that You Tube & Face Book do"

Hey man, don't be dissing the Tube. Before utube I didn't know beans from apple butter. Now that I have a channel I have become an instant expert on everything. I get to promote urban myths as fact and if you dare to disagree with me that's hate speech.





LOL.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

My walymart doesn't have supertech oil filters anymore. They have the oil which I use. SG rated SAE30W with tons of zinc and some other magic sprinkles.

why would walmart not have their own filters?

 

[tgzzzz]

why would walmart not have their own filters?

They have ST in my area

 

[TobyU]

Bert is right.
Whatever you heard it's more than likely wrong! Lol
This crap about once you go to synthetic you can never go back it's just that crap..
People say similar things about never switching brands of oil also which is also crap and just made up Hocus pocus that someone believed in their own mind and said it enough times and enough people believed it and then of course enter the internet so they could tell more people and now it's become kind of an urban legend but it's still a legend.

Now back to oil filters: I guess you should do whatever makes you sleep better at night as people have been doing this with their automobiles making sure they buy an AC Delco for a GM or a motorcraft for a Ford for decades because it makes them feel all warm and fuzzy but in reality unless you're getting them for the same price or cheaper you're just wasting money.. except for most frams or the orange fram standard ones, I won't even put those on a lawn mower!
I wouldn't put one of those on a bicycle and they don't even have oil or oil filters.
No manufacturer makes their own oil filters anyways as they're always made by someone for them and over the years they change manufacturers too and there have been proven differences in quality among the same brand and part numbers of certain filters over the years.

Point being, hardly anyone makes a better filter than Wix so you just can't go wrong with one of those and thinking that replacing a wix with a kohler, Briggs & stratton, Kawasaki or other engine brand filter is just silly and probably counterproductive.

Secondly, it's a lawn mower engine.
All the stuff that Bert said is true.
It's not like a car and these engines lasted 30 and 40 years under hard use before they ever had an oil filter on them AND let's not forget the old oils they were using which some people never pass up the chance to tell you how old are superior and advanced nowadays but we can certainly argue about that too.

Thirdly, of all the problems people have with lawn mowers , failures, engine failures etc basically you can look at every number and every box that's checked and you can find out that pretty much none of them are because of the oil filter or the brand, type of oil synthetic versus dimensional, or even the weight of oil.
Any boxes or numbers you would see in the failures attributed to that but probably just be sloppiness or air from the people who entered them because in the real world none of these things make much difference.

What DOES matter is having enough oil in it and not having any leaks bad enough to lower the level too dangerous levels.
So as long as the oil filter is it damaged, installed improperly, leaking around the gasket due to an old gasket being stuck on there or not being the proper size so it can't seal completely and as long as there's some sort of automotive oil in the crankcase whether it be SAE 30, SAE 40, 15w40, 5w40, 10w30, 10w40, 20 w 50 or several others even and as long as it's at a safe level on the dipstick THEN it really makes little difference.

People can pull themselves and convince themselves all they want but this is how it plays out in the real world.

People bring me lawn mowers that are well over 20 years old that probably haven't had the oil changed and at least 18 of those years. Maybe, just maybe they changed it once or twice in the first 3 years some don't even get that..
All they have had done is topped off for the entire life of the mower.
The oil is about as black as you can get, it's thicker than it should be but guess what.... The engine still run fine and they still have tons of life left in them.
On the other hand I get a handful of mowers in every year most of which are relatively new and under 4 years old that are completely locked up because the owner bought it new and never checked the oil since the day they put it into service.

So in the real world it's not about brand a filter or oil or the frequency of changes or the cleanliness etc but rather the presence of enough oil or basically the amount.


I use a 51348 on every briggs, kohler, Chinese/Lincoln etc as they might be a little longer but pretty much fit on everything except a few of the r1000s or rear engine rider Troy-Bilt and Craftsman because they can hit due to the mounting of the engine.
There are several different part numbers that are basically the same filter just different links but the 51348 is the most common all around one that fits pretty much everything but Kawasaki.
Those typically get a 51394.

 

[MParr]

Bert is right.
Whatever you heard it's more than likely wrong! Lol
This crap about once you go to synthetic you can never go back it's just that crap..
People say similar things about never switching brands of oil also which is also crap and just made up Hocus pocus that someone believed in their own mind and said it enough times and enough people believed it and then of course enter the internet so they could tell more people and now it's become kind of an urban legend but it's still a legend.

Now back to oil filters: I guess you should do whatever makes you sleep better at night as people have been doing this with their automobiles making sure they buy an AC Delco for a GM or a motorcraft for a Ford for decades because it makes them feel all warm and fuzzy but in reality unless you're getting them for the same price or cheaper you're just wasting money.. except for most frams or the orange fram standard ones, I won't even put those on a lawn mower!
I wouldn't put one of those on a bicycle and they don't even have oil or oil filters.
No manufacturer makes their own oil filters anyways as they're always made by someone for them and over the years they change manufacturers too and there have been proven differences in quality among the same brand and part numbers of certain filters over the years.

Point being, hardly anyone makes a better filter than Wix so you just can't go wrong with one of those and thinking that replacing a wix with a kohler, Briggs & stratton, Kawasaki or other engine brand filter is just silly and probably counterproductive.

Secondly, it's a lawn mower engine.
All the stuff that Bert said is true.
It's not like a car and these engines lasted 30 and 40 years under hard use before they ever had an oil filter on them AND let's not forget the old oils they were using which some people never pass up the chance to tell you how old are superior and advanced nowadays but we can certainly argue about that too.

Thirdly, of all the problems people have with lawn mowers , failures, engine failures etc basically you can look at every number and every box that's checked and you can find out that pretty much none of them are because of the oil filter or the brand, type of oil synthetic versus dimensional, or even the weight of oil.
Any boxes or numbers you would see in the failures attributed to that but probably just be sloppiness or air from the people who entered them because in the real world none of these things make much difference.

What DOES matter is having enough oil in it and not having any leaks bad enough to lower the level too dangerous levels.
So as long as the oil filter is it damaged, installed improperly, leaking around the gasket due to an old gasket being stuck on there or not being the proper size so it can't seal completely and as long as there's some sort of automotive oil in the crankcase whether it be SAE 30, SAE 40, 15w40, 5w40, 10w30, 10w40, 20 w 50 or several others even and as long as it's at a safe level on the dipstick THEN it really makes little difference.

People can pull themselves and convince themselves all they want but this is how it plays out in the real world.

People bring me lawn mowers that are well over 20 years old that probably haven't had the oil changed and at least 18 of those years. Maybe, just maybe they changed it once or twice in the first 3 years some don't even get that..
All they have had done is topped off for the entire life of the mower.
The oil is about as black as you can get, it's thicker than it should be but guess what.... The engine still run fine and they still have tons of life left in them.
On the other hand I get a handful of mowers in every year most of which are relatively new and under 4 years old that are completely locked up because the owner bought it new and never checked the oil since the day they put it into service.

So in the real world it's not about brand a filter or oil or the frequency of changes or the cleanliness etc but rather the presence of enough oil or basically the amount.


I use a 51348 on every briggs, kohler, Chinese/Lincoln etc as they might be a little longer but pretty much fit on everything except a few of the r1000s or rear engine rider Troy-Bilt and Craftsman because they can hit due to the mounting of the engine.
There are several different part numbers that are basically the same filter just different links but the 51348 is the most common all around one that fits pretty much everything but Kawasaki.
Those typically get a 51394.

I agree for the most part. One thing to note, a WIX 51394/NAPA Gold 1394 will not work on a Loncin made 708cc engine. The filter’s base plate will bottom out on the filter mounting flange. This doesn’t allow for the filter gasket to fully compress and you get an oil leak. For the Loncin made 708cc engine, get the Toro/Exmark branded filter, STP S4967, or FRAM TG4967.

 

[tgzzzz]

Cub Cadet is the best lawn mower ever designed. Mine revs like a F1, cuts like a laser, and never needs new blades. Jes' sayin."

 

[GrumpyCat]

Bert is right.
Whatever you heard it's more than likely wrong! Lol
This crap about once you go to synthetic you can never go back it's just that crap..
People say similar things about never switching brands of oil also which is also crap and just made up Hocus pocus that someone believed in their own mind and said it enough times and enough people believed it and then of course enter the internet so they could tell more people and now it's become kind of an urban legend but it's still a legend.

It is not crap or made up Hocus Pocus. But it is 50 years out of date.

Once Upon A Time oil formulation did not understand its effect on the swelling of gaskets, or even the vinyl of oil seals. Refining oil was an art not so much a science. Lots of things were being done in production that were not understood but no one dared change. Changing to a different brand of oil often changed the swelling of gaskets and oil seals, resulting in leaks. Not really understanding what is happening the rule became, "Use one oil until the next rebuild."

Then along came synthetic motor oil which shed all traditions and past practices. Had no idea about gasket and oil seal swelling. When a synthetic oil was put in an engine which had seals swollen by refined oil, the swelling leeched out, the seals shrunk, and leaked. This was blamed on synthetic oil but was commonly witnessed changing brands of refined oils.

Today we know gaskets and oil seals swell with oil. It is now part of the SAE/API spec. Gasket and oil seal makers know to design for it. Oil manufacturers know to design for it. There is no longer an issue changing oil brands or refined/synthetic.