when I check price differences seems like the Baldwin filters are more money, when I cut the filters to check for filings it seems like they are the same exact filter.is there a difference?
All I can say is that OEM Cat filters are generally manufactured for Cat by one of the major filter companies but even though often the 2 filters may look the same externally the "guts" of the Cat filter is their own design and generally is significantly different to other brands. Sometimes, as in the case of a posting yesterday, the outside of the Cat filter is different to the will-fit but this is nowhere near as common. Usually OEM and will-fit look pretty much the same from the outside.
I would go with CAT unless there's an overriding reason not to.
I've noticed over the last year or so Baldwin filters prices have gone thru the roof! I would say stick with the cat filters.
Cat Filters I thought that Donaldson made ?? most of Cat's filters. I do have some of the numbers for the Duramax 750 & 751. I found the cross numbers, specs on line sometime ago.
please share them I have a 05 LLY duramax
That certainly used to be the case for a large perentage of the Cat filter line, it may not be today. However it will certainly be one of the major filter manufacturers that make them. However, and I said this previously but it seems that it didn't sink in, whoever makes the filters for Cat it's not simply their filter with yellow paint and a Cat logo - it's a Cat-designed filter manufactured to Cat specifications and will be totally different internally to the "will fit" equivalent from the same filter manufacturer that made the Cat filter
Not promoting Donaldson Filters, but where I worked we did use them for the most part. If you have your filter number go to this site and it will cross just about any ones number to Donaldson. Then click on the Donaldson number and it will give you the spec's https://dynamic.donaldson.com/WebStore/search/cross_reference.html
I remember doing a little cost analysis when I rode a tugboat for a while. Even with it taking a case of filters per service, the cost difference between buying CAT oil filters versus the cheapest they could find, which they were using, amounted to a few hundred a year. The last engine overhaul they had done ran North of forty grand. We bought CAT from then on.
I've always found that working with my parts and service sales person that any of my Cat parts or Deere parts were comparable if not cheaper than other suppliers. Just priced primary and secondary air filters for Horizontal grinder Donaldson came on machine and CAT filters were cheaper than NAPA, Baldwin or Donaldson.
I don't know if this was true or not, but 20 years ago I worked for a company with a bunch of 3176 Cat engines, we ran NAPA filters and started having starting problems with those engines. give them a sniff of ether and off they would go, let them sit 20 minutes and no restart without the same treatment. Our cat dealer said our injector nozzles were plugged with paper fuzz from the aftermarket filters. switching to Cat secondary filters did seem to alleviate the problem. Apparently the Cat filters were some sort of fiberglass? wound element. I don't remember for sure.
Here I can buy Baldwin filters for about 1/2 the price of Cat filters but I have always used Cat filters. I wouldn't pay more for Baldwin filters than Cat.
When I think about downtime and the expense of repairs, the use of Cat filters is in order to lower my cost per hour and raise machine availability. I am putting a lot of faith in Cat that there filters are the best for their machines, and perhaps that is a naïve amount of brand loyalty, but I am not willing to risk the possibility of premature failures in order to save $50 bucks per service. Especially at a 500 hour service interval.