Baldwin Oil Filters?

dmjasmith · Jan 20, 2006

Does anyone have any comments about Baldwin Oild Filters? Recommended, not recommended for the 2.3 Duratec? The reason I am asking is I just had my oil changed recently (and the EFL910 was used instead of Genuine Motorcraft without my knowledge) and immediately I noticed that the engine is very noisy during starts. Intitally it sounds normal, then after about 15 to 20 seconds of idle, the valve train becomes very loud, as if it is being starved of oil. Finally afer 1.5 to 2 mins of running the sound fades out and returns to normal. Has anyone else encountered this? 8500 miles on her now, and no internal engine mods to mention.

Needless to say I am going today to the Ford dealer that did the oil change and requesting another oil change with Genuine Motorcraft parts.

BornAgainFordOwner · Jan 20, 2006

It might be worth telling the Ford Zone office and ask their opinion.

dmjasmith · Jan 21, 2006

Just an update on the filter issue. I went to the dealership today, and explained the situation to the Shop Manager. He had a tech come over to hear the symptom, and from that they decided to confirm the filter type. The filter that was installed while having the symptom was an EFL910, marked "FoMoCo" on the reverse side (not Motorcraft). There was a visible difference in the two filters (the Motorcraft was shorter, and a bit more rounded at the top). The Motorcraft had the distinct "Motorcraft" labeling trademark, whereas the EFL910 only had FoMoCo stamped in generic fonts on the filter. My reasoning for calling this filter a Baldwin Filter was a simple Google search of "EFL910 and filter" found this http://baldwinfilters.com/lit/5hlb.pdf as the response.

Anyhow, the tech claimed that if the FoMoCo filter did not have a check valve, it would have caused the exact same symptom I experienced. They replaced it with a Motorcraft filter and wanted me to report if the symptom disappeared over the next few cold starts.

I will let you know how it does.

BornAgainFordOwner · Jan 21, 2006

A check valve prevents the oil from draining back into the engine after its turned off. Since the Duratec filter is mounted vertically, with the mounting surface up, the valve should be a non-issue. It sounds more like the filter was restricting the oil flow. FoMoCo is how Ford parts were branded back in the 60's when I was a frequent customer trying to keep my 52 Ford running.

whynotthinkwhynot · Jan 21, 2006

Sounds like it was just a bad filter.... crazy... but possible. It's a good thing you had it taken off!!

sieben · Jan 21, 2006

The EFL-910 is the old style filter, they have since replaced them with just a FL-910 which is a bit shorter, but function the same.

dmjasmith · Jan 23, 2006

Just an update from over the weekend:

I've had 3 cold starts on the new filter and I have not noticed symptom since the replacement. My guess is either the EFL910 was defective and was not allowing oil to flow properly during startup, or it has no check valve at all and was causing the problem.

Needles to say I am glad a new filter fixed the symptom and I am also glad I caught this early before any harm was done to the engine. I would recommend to all to listen carefully to your engine immediately after an oil change to make sure this doesn't happen to you. More than likely this was an isolated issue.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

Baldwin Oil Filters?

dmjasmith

BornAgainFordOwner

dmjasmith

BornAgainFordOwner

whynotthinkwhynot

sieben

dmjasmith

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