Early automotive engines didn’t use any kind of filtration for the oil. It wasn’t until a patent was granted to Ernest Sweetland and George Greenhalgh in 1923 for their product the “pure oil later” or “Purolator,” that you could buy an automobile with a full pressure lubrication system.

It would be many years later before a full flow oil filter found on today’s automobiles was incorporated.

The 1940s would bring about filtration systems on mass produced vehicles, and the 1960s made oil filter changes much more convenient with the advent of “spin on” disposable filters. Through the next few decades, advances were made in the internal construction and filter media, making the filters much more efficient. Today, all automotive engines, whether gasoline or diesel, come with filtration designed to improve oil cleanliness and thus extend the life of that engine.