Contaminant-free, strong motor oil is the key to engine longevity, overall engine performance and efficiency. This is especially true for air-cooled applications where the engine’s lubrication also serves as its coolant, such as with most Harley-Davidson engines. Unfortunately, most of the paper-type media filters on the market today don’t work very well. The problem with many of these filters is that there is a weak bypass valve set to open the bypass if the oil pressure gets too high within the filter. The oil doesn’t flow optimally through the paper and so what tends to happen is the oil flows over the paper, bypassing the filter media. Therefore, the oil builds up pressure and opens the bypass to return oil to the engine. The only debris that is removed from the oil is the bits that are pressed into the paper filter media by the internal build up pressure. Because the paper filter doesn’t work efficiently, oil often can’t get through it, therefore most oil isn’t actually filtered, and can rob the motor of power and longevity in the process.

Pure Power offers direct-replacement Harley-Davidson oil filters that solve the design flaws of the inexpensive filters, actually filters oil, and are completely reusable. Pure Power filters maintain high flow through deep-pleated, two-ply, stainless steel media and grab even more ferrous particulate matter with specifically engineered Neodymium magnets, and are completely cleanable and re-usable. They also feature an emergency relief valve, and they’re 100 percent American made out of 6061 T6 CNC-machined forged billet aluminum. The finned design on the outer housing also provides more surface area to help produce a cooling effect. The oil filters have an MSRP of $199.95 and are a lifetime filter meaning that it’s completely washable and reusable, so while it might be a big expense upfront, over time the filter will eventually pay for itself.

The only true test of power gain is with a dynamometer. So to test the Pure Power filter and its oil line against stock components we went to one of our local custom bike shops, Huntington Beach Hogs and Choppers (HBHC) located in (you guessed it) Huntington Beach, California. Ed Syer, owner of HBHC, picked a 100 percent stock 96ci H-D Street Glide for the test and used his dynamometer to find out if the Pure Power filter worked as claimed.

01 & 02 Here is the Pure Power Oil filter assembled and disassembled. The filter assembly consists of the finned housing, the spring loaded emergency relief valve, the filter element with Neodymium magnets, and then the filter mount/cap with Viton o-ring seals.

Pure Power also has it’s own line of oil. A little bit lighter viscocity than the typical 20W/50, Pure Power’s V-Twin 15W/40 is a dedicated, true commercial grade oil that is strong enough and versatile enough to keep extremely hard working engines alive. It was designed to help maintain cooler engine temperatures and greatly reduced engine wear.

03 Ed started by bringing the bike up to operating temperature, he then made a few dyno runs with the bike to get the stock baseline numbers. Once the engine had time to cool down, he drained the oil and removed the stock filter.

04 He refilled the oil tank with the factory-recommended SAE 20W/50 motor oil, poured a little of the same oil into a Pure Power finned oil-filter, and installed it on the mount. Again, Ed warmed up the bike and made another dyno run with the recommended oil and the Pure Power oil filter.

05 He then drained the “stock” engine oil out of the tank…and from the Pure Power filter.

06 Next, the Pure Power filter had a few ounces of Pure Power 15W-40 V-Twin oil added to it. A light coating of oil was applied to the filter’s military-spec Viton O-ring, and installed on the bike.

07 Several quarts of the Pure Power 15W-40 V-Twin oil was also added to the oil-tank.

08 Ed then performed the final run of the day, this time using the Pure Power oil and oil filter.

09 The stock baseline numbers of the Street Glide were 64.21 horsepower and 79.46 lb-ft of torque. With the stock oil and a Pure Power oil filter, the bike made 68.12 horsepower (yellow arrow) and 82.06 lb-ft of torque (blue arrow).

10 Simply swapping out the stock oil and oil filter (just like a person would do for a normal oil-change) for a Pure Power oil filter along with a few quarts of Pure Power 15W-40 yielded 70.50 horsepower (red arrow) and 83.50 lb-ft of torque (green arrow). That’s a 6 horsepower gain with an additional 4-plus lb-ft of torque.

Sources:

Huntington Beach Hogs and Choppers
hbhogs.com | (714) 891-7207

Pure Power Incorporated
gopurepower.com | (800) 750-0827