PTC Custom Fit Engine Oil Filter - Conventional and Synthetic

Video Transcript for PTC Custom Fit Engine Oil Filter Review

Today we're gonna be taking a look at PTC's line of custom fit engine oil filters. All these filters will work with both conventional and synthetic oils.The two main types of filters that you're gonna run into are your spin on type, which is this one here that just threads right on and has a seal on the top here. All the filter elements and everything is contained inside the canister.Then you have your cartridge style filter. This type will have a canister that is openable on the engine, typically has a plastic cap that unthreads. On top of that cap, you'll have usually a hex for putting a hex socket, and inside that hex there's usually a 3/8 or a half inch square for just putting your ratchet directly into that. Once you unscrew that, your seal is typically on that plastic cap.

This comes with a new seal so you can replace the one that's on your cap. If yours had a drain . Some of your cartridge style canisters here have drains on them so you can drain it before taking your filter out, so you have your drain gasket. And depending on the engine, you may need to use the adapter here. Not all filters require the use of this adapter, and that will slide on one end depending on your engine type.

It may or may not come included with your cartridge filter depending on the cartridge filter that your vehicle needs.Now you might be wondering, "Well, which one's better" Really they're both identical to one another. This is just, has all the stuff you see here essentially made inside of this canister and this mounts on the outside of the engine but just threading on the outside. This style will go into a cylinder that's in your engine. So the top comes off of the canister and this goes inside. But they both serve the exact same principles and operate very similarly.Now with your cartridge style here, many of the features that we're about to talk about on our spin on type is part of the canister that contains your cartridge filter.

Our spin on type here has many internal components to help ensure you get the best filtering and oil distribution to your engine. So inside of our canister here, we have a spring activated relief valve to ensure that we don't over pressurize our canister. The outside of our canister is a heavy gauge steel to reduce deformation and be nice and sturdy. There's also an anti drain back valve inside. And what this does is it keeps pressure up inside the engine so you don't have any dry starts.Any drum 00:02:26 will come with a gasket that'll go up against the sealing surface on your engine.

Whenever you install this style, it's very important that you verify that the seal that was on your old spin on filter comes off with the filter. If it's stuck on your engine side, you wanna make sure you remove it, 'cause if you have two gaskets installed, it will leak.And this is what our new spin on style's gonna look like when it's installed. Now if you're not changing your oil regularly, some issues you can run into is sludge build-up inside your engine. It's possible that oil could be burning and you could have low oil which can cause low oil pressure which could cause metal on metal contact and wear inside the engine, causing premature damage. Additionally, if you area changing the oil, but not changing the filter, your filters are only rated for so many miles before they need to be replaced. If you continually use the same filter without changing it, the element that's inside could potentially break free, get inside the engine and cause clogs, preventing oil from reaching critical components.Here's an example of a cartridge style filter. You would want to remove the plastic cap here and the filter's gonna be inside. Now not all of them are gonna be as deep as this. Sometimes the plastic top is only real small and then it's metal all the way down, but it's gonna be similar like this. You're gonna see this big hex on top. Many of them have that square in the middle, it's usually 3/8 or half inch to put a ratchet directly onto it. This one doesn't, but most almost always have the hex. There's typically also a torque spec written on top 'cause you don't want to over-tighten these as they are plastic caps and they can easily be damaged. Additionally, you don't want to use a filter wrench on these. You don't want to put any kind of band, clamp, or plier style on this. You wanna have the correct style hex or you that center square if it has it available.So with this style, once you've removed your cap, this is gonna fit down inside of the canister that's left. Or on this one, see how it's a big long plastic cap, it may go up inside the cap.We're now underneath the vehicle. We're gonna locate our oil filter. So you're gonna look for a canister just like the one you see here. Now you wanna make sure this is on your engine block, so this is the block and this is your transmission. Most vehicles don't have external transmission filters, but on our larger diesel truck we have here, it does have an external transmission filter so we don't want the littler filter here, we want this larger one towards the front, the block side not the transmission side.Now the location of the filter is gonna vary from engine to engine. In most cases, it's pretty close to where your drain plug is in proximity. But some vehicles have undershields that go underneath of them, so you won't be able to see really any of this. You may need to drop that shield down and sometimes it can be placed in the front, off to one side, you'll just have to look for the filter. It's pretty large and usually pretty easy to see.Now that's where you find your typical spin on style. If you have a cartridge style, those can be located either underneath or up on top on your engine. What you're gonna be looking for is a black plastic cap that's gonna be relatively the same size as your filter, a little bit bigger. And that is gonna unscrew, typically there is a hex nut on top or a square inside that hex nut, so you either use a socket on the hex nut to remove the cap or you could just put a 3/8 or half inch ratchet depending on the size of the square to remove that cap. Once you pull that cap off, you'll find your cartridge style filter inside.And that completes our look at PTC's line of custom fit engine oil filters.