>My mechanic pointed out one thing to me about Perkin's branded filters that are mounted upside down. That is that they contain a "standpipe" which goes up into the filter. *He said that other brands do not contain these pipes. Filters-- oil, fuel, air, etc.-- that are branded with an engine or vehicle manufacturer's name are almost invariably made by somebody else. The engine or vehicle manufacture will define the specifications they want the filters they're buying to meet, and they will also often specify that the filters they are buying be branded with their name, not the filter manufacturer's name. Brand recognition is a very powerful factor in consumers' buying decisions. So Land Rover dealers recommend and sell "Land Rover" air-filters, which are actually made by Cooper. Perkins-brand oil filters are undoubtedly made by another company--- I wouldn't be surprised if it's Cooper as well if Cooper makes oil filters as well as air filters. Mounting an oil filter upside down imposes specific design requirements on everyone making a filter intended to be mounted this way. So it's likely that any brand of oil filter that meets Perkins' flow and filtering specifications and is intended to be mounted upside down will have the anti-drainback features that are inside the Perkins-branded oil filter. The chances are that the only advantage to using a Perkins-brand oil filter goes to Perkins, who makes a profit on each one by adding a markup to whatever they pay their filter supplier. So you can almost always save a bit of money by buying the original-brand filter--- Cooper, Baldwin, Allied Signal, etc.--- instead of the same filter with Perkin's or Caterpillar's or whoever's paint code and logo on it. I read a number of years ago that there are--or were then-- only two companies in the United States that make automotive-type, wet-cell batteries from scratch. All the name brands-- Die Hard, Interstate, etc., etc., etc. come from these two manufacturers. There are more than two filter manufacturers, but it's the same idea. ______________________________ C. Marin Faure GB36-403 "La Perouse" Bellingham, Washington

Marin Faure wrote: I read a number of years ago that there are--or were then-- only two companies in the United States that make automotive-type, wet-cell batteries from scratch. All the name brands-- Die Hard, Interstate, etc., etc., etc. come from these two manufacturers. There are more than two filter manufacturers, but it's the same idea. The same is true for fuel pumps. The trick there is to specify the one for the cheapest car - e.g. Bosch used to make the same pump for VW, BMW and Ferrari. The last one is nearly three times as expensive as the first - the only difference is the paint job and logo. Bob Davies