Ryco SynTec wins gold — but what does it mean for your touring 4WD?

Ryco has picked up two major innovation awards for its Australian-developed SynTec Performance Oil Filters. Awards are nice, trophies look terrific in reception, and somebody in marketing will undoubtedly find a very expensive shelf for them. But here at gonetouring.com.au we’re rather more interested in what is actually inside the filter and whether any of it makes a difference to a 4WD, campervan or touring vehicle.

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Key Points

• Ryco SynTec oil filters won Gold at the 2026 AFR BOSS Most Innovative Companies awards.
• SynTec is designed to improve filtration efficiency without excessively restricting oil flow.
• Ryco says testing showed up to 33 per cent lower flow resistance and up to 20 per cent greater contaminant capacity than the equivalent OE filter tested.
• The range removes at least 99 per cent of contaminants at 20 microns.
• SynTec technology was developed partly through Ryco’s work with Supercars GEN3 engines.
• Applications include popular touring vehicles such as the Isuzu D-Max, Ford Ranger, Everest, Mazda BT-50 and selected campervan platforms.
• Not every engine or model is covered, so owners should check the Ryco application guide before buying.
• Better filtration does not mean longer service intervals — manufacturer servicing requirements still apply.

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Ryco recently sent out not one but two announcements about its success at the 2026 Australian Financial Review BOSS Most Innovative Companies awards.

One announced that Ryco’s SynTec Performance Oil Filters had won Gold in the Manufacturing & Consumer Goods category. The other announced that Ryco had been named Most Innovative Company in the Small Company category.

Very nice. Congratulations all round. Bring out the tiny sausage rolls.

But there was something considerably more interesting buried beneath the award-speak: what exactly has Ryco done to an oil filter to make a panel of innovation judges get excited about it?

Because oil filters aren’t traditionally exciting objects.

Nobody walks into the shed on Saturday morning, looks lovingly at a cylindrical blue filter sitting on the bench and whispers, “You magnificent bastard.”

At least, nobody we’d particularly like to spend a long weekend camping with.

Yet, oddly enough, there is some rather clever engineering going on inside Ryco’s SynTec filters.

The problem with filtering oil

At its simplest, an oil filter has an apparently easy job. Catch the rubbish.

Unfortunately, if you make filter media incredibly fine, it can become restrictive. The filter may remove smaller particles, but the engine still needs a very large quantity of oil flowing through it.

An absolutely perfect filter that stops everything including the oil itself would have magnificent filtration efficiency and approximately the same effect on the engine as trying to pump cold honey through a drinking straw.

So, filter designers are forever juggling three things: efficiency, flow and capacity. Efficiency is how much contamination it removes. Flow is how easily the oil can pass through. Capacity is how much muck the filter can hold before restriction starts increasing.

The clever bit is improving one without destroying the other two.

That’s what Ryco says it has achieved with SynTec.

In comparative laboratory testing conducted to the ISO 4548-12 oil-filter test standard, SynTec produced up to 33 per cent less flow resistance and up to 20 per cent more contaminant capacity than the equivalent OE filter used for comparison.

It also removes a minimum of 99 per cent of contaminants at 20 microns.

For those less technically minded, twenty microns is 0.02 millimetres.

In other words, absolutely minuscule. The sort of thing you’d normally need an electron microscope, three scientists and somebody called Nigel with a clipboard to become enthusiastic about.

But inside an engine, particles around this size can do a surprising amount of damage.

Little bits of dirt can do surprisingly expensive things

The oil film separating components such as bearings, crankshafts, piston rings and cylinder walls can itself be extremely thin.

That means microscopic abrasive particles travelling around with the oil can become the mechanical equivalent of throwing sand between two beautifully machined surfaces and asking them to rub together several thousand times every minute.

Research into engine filtration has demonstrated a strong relationship between better removal of fine contaminants and reduced abrasive wear.

That doesn’t mean fitting a SynTec filter this afternoon will cause your 300,000-kilometre diesel to wake tomorrow morning with the internals of a new engine.

Sadly, engineering remains stubbornly resistant to miracles.

It does mean there is a legitimate argument for capturing finer particles, provided you can do it without restricting the oil supply.

And this is where SynTec becomes interesting.

What our own D-Max oil samples tell us

At Gone Touring we already keep an eye on what is happening inside our Isuzu D-Max through regular laboratory oil sampling.

The reports track wear metals, contaminants and the condition of the oil over time, which gives us considerably more information than simply pulling the dipstick out and deciding the oil still looks vaguely oily.

Our March 2026 sample, taken with the D-Max showing 86,334 kilometres, came back with “No Action Required”, with the laboratory noting that viscosity was consistent with the oil being used and that wear levels below the five-micron range appeared acceptable.

That report doesn’t prove that a particular oil filter is responsible for the result, nor does it directly measure SynTec’s claimed filtration performance. But it does demonstrate why contamination and wear particles are worth paying attention to in a touring vehicle that spends much of its life towing and travelling long distances.

For us, oil analysis is simply another way of seeing what is happening inside the engine before something expensive starts making a noise.

From Supercars to the campsite

Ryco uses a high-efficiency synthetic filter media designed to create a complex path through which the oil passes. The idea is to trap more fine contamination while maintaining oil flow.

Some SynTec designs also use reinforced media and components engineered to cope with high oil pressures and temperatures.

Ryco’s original development work came partly from its involvement with the Repco Supercars Championship and GEN3 race engines.

Now obviously your Ford Ranger dragging a caravan towards Birdsville isn’t a Supercar.

Although, judging by the way some people overtake with 3.5 tonnes hanging off the towbar, there are drivers who appear unaware of this distinction.

The useful bit is that some of the lessons learned in maintaining oil flow and filtration under severe engine conditions have migrated into road-going filters.

And that’s where the technology starts making sense for touring vehicles.

Why it makes sense in a 4WD

Think about the life of a touring 4WD.

It might start cold on a winter morning, spend hours towing a caravan at highway speed, crawl slowly up a steep track in low range, idle while somebody argues about whether the campsite is actually level, and then spend another six hours driving through dust.

That is hardly the gentle existence imagined by the people who write brochures showing spotless dual-cabs parked beside an equally spotless tent.

Oil flow is particularly important during cold starts because cold oil is thicker. A filter with lower restriction can make it easier for the lubrication system to move that oil through the engine.

Dust, soot and hard-working diesels

Then there’s contaminant capacity.

Off-road driving obviously exposes a vehicle to huge quantities of dust. The engine’s air filter is the first and most important defence against that dust entering the engine, so a better oil filter is certainly not an excuse to neglect the air filter.

But some contamination inevitably finds its way into engine oil through combustion, blow-by and normal engine wear. Metal wear particles, soot and other material also accumulate in the lubricant.

The oil filter gets the glamorous job of dealing with all of it. Well, glamorous by oil-filter standards.

A greater contaminant capacity means the filter can hold more material before restriction begins rising, which becomes particularly relevant in engines living a harder life.

Importantly, that doesn’t mean you can double your service interval and disappear around Australia for three years without changing the oil.

Stick with the manufacturer’s specified service schedule, and if the handbook specifies shorter intervals for severe operating conditions, pay attention to them.

Better filtration is additional protection, not permission to abandon maintenance.

What about towing and campervans?

This is probably where SynTec becomes particularly relevant to Gone Touring readers.

A loaded campervan or tow vehicle can spend hours operating under substantial engine load. Cylinder pressures increase, temperatures rise and the lubrication system has a lot of work to do.

Maintaining oil flow while removing abrasive contamination is therefore rather more useful than it might be in a small car whose most demanding weekly assignment is negotiating the Bunnings car park.

Will SynTec fit your touring vehicle?

And SynTec isn’t confined to exotic performance cars.

Ryco currently lists the Z929ST SynTec filter for 2020–2027 Isuzu D-Max models, which brings the whole exercise rather close to home for us at Gone Touring.

There are also SynTec applications for a number of other vehicles familiar to Australian tourers. The R2720PST, for example, covers versions of the Ford Ranger PX and PX3, Ford Everest UA and Mazda BT-50 UP0Y.

Campervan owners haven’t been forgotten either. Ryco lists SynTec applications for some Ford Transit and Transit Custom models, as well as some Toyota HiAce models.

That doesn’t mean every D-Max, HiAce, Transit or campervan ever built can simply have a SynTec filter screwed onto it. Different model years and engines can use completely different filtration systems, and some popular camper platforms still don’t have a SynTec equivalent.

So check first.

Modern engines can have very specific requirements for filter dimensions, bypass valves, anti-drainback valves, oil pressure and flow characteristics. You don’t choose an oil filter because it looks roughly the right size and the bloke at the campsite reckons it’ll fit.

Use the Ryco catalogue, registration lookup or manufacturer’s application information to find the correct filter for the exact engine and model.

Related Reading:

Ryco Cabin Filters: When to replace them
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