Cylinder Heads by Crankshaft Supply

RockAuto now carries Crankshaft Supply remanufactured cylinder heads as well as crankshafts. Machining experts, Crankshaft Supply has been remanufacturing and repairing engine parts for over 50 years. Crankshaft Supply cylinder heads are remanufactured to better-than-new condition and come fully assembled and ready to install.

To ensure the best reliability and performance, the Crankshaft Supply remanufacturing process includes having each cylinder head:

• Thoroughly degreased and cleaned to like-new appearance
• Magnafluxed or dye-checked to detect any surface and subsurface cracks
• Pressure tested for leaks
• Measured and machined so valve seats and deck surfaces meet specifications
• Fitted with new valve guides and springs as needed, and finished with new Viton valve seals which meet or exceed OEM and AERA (Automotive Engine Builders Association) specifications
• Vacuum tested after assembly to verify the correct function of all valves and seats

Whether you need a remanufactured cylinder head to get the engine in your 2003 Honda CR-V running like new, or need to replace the leak-ridden aluminum head on your 1989 Volkswagen Jetta, find Crankshaft Supply cylinder heads in the “Engine” category of the RockAuto catalog.

Forum of the Month

505turbo.com is a Peugeot Automobile enthusiast site that was founded in June 2005, and has just recently been completely overhauled with many cool new features. We are a die-hard Peugeot community that facilitates discussions, sharing of information, maintenance tips and procedures, as well as performance modifications so that these great cars can be enjoyed for years to come. Come check us out and see for yourself!

Repair Mistakes & Blunders

My wife's 2002 Honda Accord was due for its 120,000 mile service, so my brother-in-law and I decided to take care of it ourselves. It had received a tune-up recently so this service amounted to us changing the transmission fluid, changing the coolant, installing new brake pads and rotors and doing an oil change. Once we got the car up on the lift, we drained all the fluids and did the brake work. Once it was back on the ground, we filled it with new transmission fluid and then coolant. At this point, we decided to bleed the cooling system and started the engine. The engine started right up...but sounded a little strange. After 30 seconds or so of coolant burping, I realized why the engine sounded strange. We hadn't put any oil back in the engine!

The engine ran surprisingly well with what little oil was left in it, and it's still running well 30,000 miles later, so I'll keep using the same brand of oil I guess. As long as I remember to put it in that is!

James in Maryland

Tell us about your most infamous auto repair blunder or unconventional fix. Use your woe to help others avoid similar mistakes or share off-the-wall solutions that worked (at least for a while!). Please e-mail your story to flamur@rockauto.com. Include your mailing address and if you would like a RockAuto T-Shirt (please let us know your shirt size) or Hat if we publish your story. See the T-Shirts and Hats under Tools & Universal Parts in the catalog. The story will be credited using only your first name and your vague geographic location (state, province, country, continent, etc.) so you can remain semi-anonymous!

Automotive Trivia

The V8 found in Rover, MG and other British brand vehicles starting in the late 1960s was based on the:

A. Buick 215cid (3.5L), a groundbreaking aluminum block engine introduced on the 1961 Buick Special and installed in Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac vehicles until 1963. GM dropped the aluminum engine because among other reasons, it was expensive to manufacture. Rover purchased the engine tooling from GM in 1965.

B. Mercedes Benz 6.3L "M-100," with Bosch mechanical fuel injection. This V8 propelled the large Mercedes 600 beginning in 1964. Mercedes had excess manufacturing capacity and sold nearly complete M-100 engines to Rover until 1972, when Rover purchased the tooling and took over production.

C. Studebaker 283 cid (4.6L) "V Series Eight," a cast iron block, overhead valve engine with 195 brake HP. Rover purchased the engine tooling and 182 complete engines in 1967 after Studebaker ceased car production.

Answer below

Oil Filters Part II

As I said in the February newsletter, I enjoy picking out oil filters for my family’s fleet. I want to personally try out the numerous oil filter brands RockAuto carries, and trying new filters makes oil changes and the fleet more interesting. Instead of just saying, “I changed the oil on the (Ford) Tempo again,” I can tell my wife, “I am running a WIX filter on your Tempo this time!”

Some newsletter readers said I should not switch oil filter brands so casually and referenced the numerous web sites where oil filters have been disassembled and evaluated in various ways. Car club forums or other sites comparing oil filters for a particular engine or car model may be helpful because they can focus on problems or characteristics unique to a specific car. Maybe a particular engine is prone to oil filter leaks and some filters seal up better on that engine than others. For example, Denso uses an o-ring rather than a flat gasket which might seal better on some engines.

However, it is next to impossible for even the most sincere amateur oil filter researcher to simulate all or even many of the numerous possible driving conditions and realistically and comprehensively measure the performance of individual filters and filter parts. There are differences between oil filters, but like it or not, we mostly have to rely on the filter manufacturers to explain those differences and why they might be important for particular driving conditions, oil change intervals, etc. Some manufacturers including Fram might make several different filter choices for the same engine.

Here are some the filter benefits claimed by manufacturers, when they may or may not be important and how they are interrelated. At RockAuto, the difference between the most expensive oil filter and the least expensive filter might be as little as $4 for some engines. This lets customers choose the filter that is the best match for their particular situation with less worry about cost.

Anti-drain back valves: These valves are flaps of silicone or nitrile rubber that keep the oil from draining out of the filter when the engine is turned off. Keeping oil in the filter means the oil is there to lubricate the engine the moment it is started up. If the filter mounts to the engine from below, then gravity will keep oil in the filter with or without a valve. Silicone valves are advertised as being longer lasting than nitrile. A nitrile valve is more likely to become brittle if the engine is typically run hot for a longish, 10,000 or 15,000 mile oil change interval.

Bypass valves: Bypass valves are sometimes presented in ads as if they are breaking news, but these valves have been in oil filters for a long time. The bypass valve pops open if the filter clogs up so that oil flow is not interrupted. It also opens if the oil is too thick in extreme cold, and it prevents internal damage to the oil filter that might release dirt back into the engine.

Steel case & removal aids: Some filter manufacturers advertise the ruggedness of their filter’s steel housing. They might also promote coatings or nut fittings that make gripping and removing the filter easier. These features could be important on some engine designs with filters that are hard to reach, easily hit by road debris including salt, exposed to high internal oil pressures or otherwise inherently subjected to unusual abuse.

Metal Mesh: Inside the filter, the pleated filter material is covered and supported with a layer of metal mesh. The additional support provided might be helpful if the filter is left on the engine for a very long maintenance interval such as 10,000+ miles, or if the engine generates unusually high oil pressures that might compact less well supported filter material. Most filters do not include a metal mesh, and all filters support the filter material in some way. For example, ACDelco says their filters have “thermosetting adhesive seals to hold filtering media in place for consistent, dependable filtration.”

Synthetic filtering media: Traditional filters use cellulose filtering media (paper). Newer, typically more expensive filters might use a mixture of cellulose and synthetic (polyester, etc.) media or layers of different types of media. Metal mesh support is often part of filters with synthetic media, so perhaps synthetic materials inherently need more support than cellulose. Synthetic media often claims higher filtering efficiency (covered below).

Synthetic oil: Some filters are marketed as being ideal for use with 100% synthetic oil. This sometimes incorrectly implies that synthetic oil is somehow harder on oil filters than conventional oils. That is not true. Any oil filter would be more than happy to have 100% synthetic oil running through it. What the manufacturers are probably trying to say is that the overall filter design can withstand the very long, 10,000+ mile maintenance intervals that some car manufacturers allow when synthetic oil is specified. The high purity of synthetic oil might also enable filters with high filter efficiency to remove tiny debris without filtering out additives intentionally included in the oil.

Filter Efficiency: Some manufacturers list filter efficiencies of 95%, 98%, etc. These numbers might be best used to compare filters of the same brand. Different manufacturers may use different standards to come up with these numbers. Fram uses the testing procedures of “ISO 4548-12 for particles > 20 microns.” ACDelco says their filters have “98 percent single-pass filtering efficiency at 25-30 microns” or “1/3 the width of a human hair.” Capturing a big percentage of 20 micron or 25 micron particles the first time they pass through the oil filter is good in general. But depending on the engine and driving conditions, other filter design criteria might be as important or more important than first pass filter efficiency. Some filter manufacturers warn that trying to filter out substances a few microns in size risks filtering out important additives in some oils.

Capacity: This is how much dirt the filter material can hold before the filter clogs. No matter how often I change the oil and filter, I know the crankcase of the well-worn engine in my 1979 Chrysler 300 is full of particles bigger than 20 microns. There are probably plenty of 70 micron, human hair sized particles too. With older engines, first pass filter efficiency might be less important than a high capacity for larger dirt chunks. It is bad if the oil filter quickly clogs up with tiny 20-micron particles and the bypass valve is activated. The oil then can be left circulating unfiltered for months with larger, perhaps more destructive chunks of stuff floating in it. The surface area of the filtering material is most often used to measure filter capacity. Tighter filter pleats can pack in more filtering material and increase capacity. However, manufacturers’ claims for capacity are often vaguely worded, such as Motorcraft’s “increased dirt-collecting capability.” It is just difficult to come up with one number to define capacity. The targeted particle sizes, type of filter material, etc. may vary between filters. A filter with a large capacity for the big dirt in my 1979 Chrysler engine might not have the best capacity (and filter efficiency) for the little dirt that might be the biggest worry for a new, tight tolerance engine.

Flow: It is important that the oil filter not reduce the flow of oil through the engine too much. Flow is usually measured by gallons or liters per minute or the drop in oil pressure at the oil filter. Flow is closely tied to the other design parameters. The trick is to have oil flow high enough to optimize engine lubrication and cooling while also giving the oil enough time to percolate through the cleansing filter material. This is another parameter that the filter manufacturers describe in non-numeric terms such as K&N’s “high flow design can help to improve engine performance by reducing oil filter restriction.”

High Mileage: Fram has high mileage oil filters that slowly release additives to the oil to maintain viscosity, neutralize acids, etc. These filters might be a good match for the traumatized oil in my 1979 Chrysler. Or these filters might be a good fit for high mileage engines in newer fleet vehicles that get driven a lot and tend to have their oil changed at the maximum recommended mileage intervals or even a bit late. I have not personally tried these filters yet.

OE filter: Nearly every oil filter manufacturer in the RockAuto catalog was the original equipment manufacturer for one car model or another. Picking the OE filter might be most important for particular vehicles where the filter is in a tight or unusual location. My Chrysler V8s from the ’60s, ‘70s and ‘90s all shared the same oil pump and oil capacity, but every decade required a new, usually smaller oil filter shape. As far as I can tell, the only reason the oil filter changed was so the filter could fit on the engine no matter in which crowded engine bay it was installed. The OE, Denso oil filter for the 318 (5.2L) in my ’92 Dodge van is not much bigger than a coffee cup. A big coffee bean can sized filter would fit on my van, but maybe the small Denso filter is all that will fit on some other ’92 Chrysler model with a tight engine compartment. I cannot recommend using a filter different than the one specified by the manufacturers for your particular model and year. I do not want to take the blame if somebody hits a curb with his super sized oil filter. However, I must admit I have occasionally used the big ’68 Chrysler sized filters on my ‘70s and ‘90s Chrysler V8s over the past couple of decades and nothing obviously bad happened. I watch oil levels, but the difference in oil capacity between the filters is really too small to measure with the dipstick.

I hope this tome helps you feel more comfortable sorting through the filter manufacturers’ information and picking out the filter at RockAuto that is best for your particular driving conditions and oil change intervals. Choosing oil filters might be similar to picking out a new coat. The most expensive synthetic coat that can withstand arctic cold is the best choice if you are exploring Antarctica, and the inexpensive cotton coat is the best choice if you are just taking the dog for a walk around the block in San Diego. Picking out filters should still be more fun than stressful. My wife’s ’93 Tempo is living proof that for most cars, regularly changing the oil and filter is probably ultimately more important than which brand of oil filter from RockAuto is installed.

Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com

To read more of Tom's articles, click this link and choose from story titles on the Newsletter Archives page.

© 1999-2014 RockAuto, LLC - Madison, Wisconsin USA. RockAuto name and logo are registered trademarks of RockAuto, LLC. Manufacturer names and logos in the RockAuto catalog are trademarks of their respective companies and are used only to identify their products. All rights reserved.