After draining the filter by using a scribe, or ice pick to puncture the dome & letting it sit to drain out the puncture, with a small screwdriver inserted in one of the base end holes to lift the anti-drainback valve so it'll drain faster, I use my Dremel with a Harbor Freight Diamond cutting wheel, about a quarter inch above the base plate rolled seal to remove the base plate can that surrounds the media pleats. This will make a neat quick cut through the thin can material & not touch the media. If we cut with the base end down, it'll help keep cutting debris off the media if your interested in removing it with a box cutter along the metal end caps to remove & unfold the media pleats to see what if anything caught is large enough to see.

Some folks wrap the media with paper towels to wick excess oil out of the media to make it easier to see larger debris, others cut & fold the media into a block, held between two pieces of scrap wood, place that assembly in a vice & Squeeze the excess oil out that way but I wonder how much media contained Depth debris is dislodged, to weep out with the oil, so we might think the media is cleaner than it really is??? But if your not interested in what its caught, just if its torn, or how many square inches of media the filter has, its faster to squeeze it dry for inspection.

 

Over the years with these trucks this is what I did for oil changes. Every 4-7 weeks I'm crawling under the truck to change the oil. I never felt that harm was being done to the engine using the intervals posted. With the track record of high miles the synthetic blend oil & Motorcraft filter must be doing something that's not harming the engine. Even the 88 & 95 that used whatever dino oil that was on sale were still going but the bodies didn't fare so well in the northeast salted road winters.

1999 F250 5.4_ 250k miles, Motorcraft 5w20 synthetic blend & Motorcraft filter. 5,000 mile oil changes.
​​2008 F350 V10_ 200k+ miles, Motorcraft 5w20 synthetic blend & Motorcraft filter. 5,000 mile oil changes.
2012 F250 6.2_ 213,800 miles, Motorcraft 5w20 synthetic blend & Motorcraft filter. 7,000 mile oil changes.
The new 2021 7.3_ 52,000+ so far, Motorcraft 5w30 synthetic blend & Motorcraft filter. 7-10,000 mile oil changes.

88 F250 I6 engine, used whatever dino oil, over 250k miles. 3-5k mile intervals.
95 F350 351 engine, used whatever dino oil, over 250k miles. 3-5k mile intervals.

 

What kind of driving are you doing that you're putting on so many miles?

My personal motorcycle, car, and truck log very few miles. My work truck gets up to 300 miles daily. But that doesn't mean I drive that much every day. On some days, it's a little less. The first week of every month, it gets an oil change. It gets the fleet service oil change of generic oil and filter. All fluids are serviced as needed. All wear items are replaced as needed. Even with the cheapest oil and filter, I have yet to see one of these trucks fail with a seized engine. But then again, businesses tend to replace trucks every 3 - 5 years or 250,000 miles. Maybe the engines seize on the next guy, at 300,000 miles. Then his mechanic will tell him that the engine was dirty from hundreds of thousands of miles, using cheap oil and filters.

 

I travel for work overseeing crews spread out through the midwest to west coast, 30+ years traveling, plus my fulltime rv lifestyle boondocking. Miles at times can add up fast.

 

So updating my own posts........

Finally found a way to remove the filter element completely intact--simply used tin snips to cut the can away. There's little to no chance of any cutting debris from grinding, drilling etc falling inside. Also found Blackstone has a service they'll inspect the media and report their findings, much like their oil analysis.

Bad news is that's upwards of $125 per test, I was a bit sticker shocked () but may still go forward for my own piece of mind. I also have the previous oil filter that had over 6K miles on it in use, may go the DIY inspection route to simply see what I can or might find inside it.