Mopar oil filters vs. other quality filters

[bull]

Like the other 6,200 Walmart locations worldwide, my local WalMart is not known for carrying quality car parts. However there was a time when it carried Mopar oil filters and I made the most of it while I could. The same Mopar filter that fits my Durango also fits my 94 Dakota and my 68 383 Charger so I could get a pretty good quality filter for all three of my cars just a mile away from home. Well, so much for that. They apparently weren't selling enough of them so now I'm going to have to travel a bit to purchase a decent oil filter. So short of going to the Dodge dealer, what aftermarket filter is considered to be of good quality? I was told by the guy at my machine shop that Wix makes a quality filter and that Napa and CarQuest filters are made by Wix.

I'm no expert on oil filters but the one thing I noticed about the Mopar filters is that they have some good sized holes at the top which in my mind lends itself to better volume and pressure. The last time I went to Walmart to get a couple of Mopar filters is when I discovered that they no longer sold them so I grabbed a couple Mobil 1 filters instead thinking that Mobil 1 oil is good so Mobil 1 filters must be ok too. When I got the boxes open and the wrappers off I could see that the holes on top were about half the diameter of the holes in the Mopar filters (and I think there were two fewer holes too). But, like I said, I'm not an oil filter expert but IMO the diameter of those holes means something to me.

Anyway, I don't want to turn this into a Fram bash/love fest but a) are Mopar filters good quality filters and b) what's a good quality filter if Mopar is not readily available? And who makes Mopar filters?

[68X426]

Wix. 

[Dans 68]

Wix. 

Yep.

Dan

[c00nhunterjoe]

wix and motorcraft are the best 2 filters out there. but i'm sure most of you wont run a ford filter on your dodge....lol i'm not ashamed to say i run them

[bull]

After doing some "research" on the web I found that Mopar uses many different filter makers to produce Mopar filters at any given time, and the quality ranges from one end of the spectrum to the other so it's kind of a crapshoot. So far I've never heard or read anything bad about Wix so I'll just go with them. Thanks.

[RD]

motorcraft are actually made by purolator, BUT they are made under ford's strict specifications.

http://people.msoe.edu/~yoderw/oilfilterstudy/oilfilterstudy.html

i use a wix 51515 on my 05 hemi though it calls for the 51085, lots of room there to put in a filter.

there is a longer one out there that i have used in the past (about 8" long) if you need more oil.  i can get the part number for you.

*edit* almost forgot.. O'Reillys carries mopar filters on hand at all stores.

[bull]

I think 98% of the filters are made by Champion Laboratores Inc. anyway but there are still different levels of quality I'm sure. They list Mopar filters as being one they produce but again, there might be other companies involved from time to time.

http://www.champlabs.com/