MLVW M36 Crane Trucks

[rob love]

That number seems to ring a bell. I could check at work, we have a few different brands that came through the supply system.



The other day I actually had a pair of the oil filters leak on me. Same deal...a different brand of filter had the gasket of a slightly different diameter, and it leaked. I guess that explains why the other filters were so tight I had to bring a heavy duty strap wrench in from home to get the old ones loose. This was on a crane truck as well. We managed to secure two crane M36Cs for the museum. I don't particularly like that long wheelbase, but the heavy lift capability more than makes up for that.


I had some of the NAPA match-ups dump fuel into the hull of a 548 last winter. The gasket was almost completely off the mating surface. I stick to the originals now.

[Robin Craig]

Dear All,

the NAPA equivalent filters for many brand name do not stack up, period. in the development of a spin on oil filter adapter I learned that even not all the threads are the same quality and when you use a filter cutter you find the construction is not the same by any means so gaskets issues are bound to follow.

The experiences stated by others is not surprising, despite the counter person's utterance of "ours is the same as XYZ but cheaper".

[rob love]

There is not a quality issue with the NAPA (which is also WIX), just an interchangeability problem. The Wix filters are well regarded overall.

Perhaps on some applications, the slight difference in diameter does not make a difference. In others, they are not compatible.

[FrankJames]

And it's hard not to try to find the working alternate when one is $12 and the FRAM is $40-$50.

[Robin Craig]

Rob, I really respect you knowledge and experience in all things mechanical and military related, but having cut apart a number of WIX versus NAPA filters there is not the same surface area and construction, I am not able to agree with you on that point.

I agree to disagree on this one.

[rob love]

No need to disagree.


Wix reportedly makes the gold and platinum labelled NAPA filters. The regular level of NAPA filter could well have less quality and differing construction.



Of course, these days there are so many forgeries of products that those of us who like to find the cheap source are often purchasing made in China reproductions from sources like ebay or amazon.

[Paul Singleton]

I haven’t thought of those engines in quite a while. Where I worked we had those engines in Ford F800 trucks. The biggest problem was blown head gaskets. When we had them in garbage trucks one blew a head gasket when fairly new and the dealer that sold us the truck wasn’t licensed to do the engine warranty repairs. We pulled it apart and replaced the head gaskets but no shop in our area at the time had the kit to set the injector height. I adjusted the valves with the injector rocker arms backed off. When it came time to set the injectors without the set up tools I put a dial indicator on the push rod and cranked the engine by hand until the push rod was on the high point on the camshaft lobe. I then put the dial indicator on the injector and tightened up the adjustment gently until the injector was bottomed out. At that point I back off the adjustment 0.035” so the injector tip wouldn’t be damaged. The truck ran well but with a bit of black smoke when accelerating. It was a couple of years until it got a proper adjustment because of the need to pass the new emissions test.