The International Cessna^® 170 Association

What are the Pro's and Con's of the AirWolf vs the F&M oil filter installations?

Are there any others on the market?

Mine had the El Reno (FM) filter adapter installed when I bought it and I'm quite happy with it. If I was faced with making the choice myself, I'd probably still choose it. Somehow, the Airwolf with its extra hoses to carry the oil from the engine to the filter and back doesn't give me a warm fuzzy. The more connections you have, the more possible points of failure you have and when it comes to something like the blood of my engine, I want as much of it IN my engine as possible.

I read an article on the L-19 site a while ago that talked about the guy having an Airwolf filter installed on his O-470 and it produced noticable vibration on the firewall at certain RPM. Airwolf apparently knew of the problem and managed to correct it by changing the hose lengths although the owner still had a minor vibration at some rpms. I'd be afraid of vibrations leading to loosening of connections leading to pumping the oil overboard.

Personally, I'd go with the FM filter.

FM-Enterprises ( http://www.fm-enterprises.com/ ) filter adaptor is short and sweet. Like my wife. Wouldn't change either of 'em.
(That's the difference between men and women. A man marries a woman hoping she'll never change. A woman marries a man and immediately sets about trying to change him!)

gahorn wrote:(That's the difference between men and women. A man marries a woman hoping she'll never change. A woman marries a man and immediately sets about trying to change him!)

Ain't that the truth

doug8082a wrote:

gahorn wrote:(That's the difference between men and women. A man marries a woman hoping she'll never change. A woman marries a man and immediately sets about trying to change him!)

Ain't that the truth

That's why you want to always develop a new bad habit you can live without in the beginning of a relationship. She can cure and improve you, and you can maybe keep the other old bad habits.

My AI has had experience with F&M's galling on other installations and said his preference was for the airwolf.

Any one experience any galling or ideas on how to prevent it?

"galling" is a term that describes metal transfer, and the only problem the FM has had in that regards is exactly the same as other oil filter adaptors,...mechanics install them without first cleaning the threads of the accessory case. FM Enterprises will loan you the tool for free to do that.