Ignorant cartridge oil filter question

[scott123456789]

Went to napa and bought a replacement filter for my Massey 135. I was surprised when the filter seemed quite a bit smaller in diameter than the housing. Also the filter that was in the tractor was closer in size to the housing. The o rings provided all fit perfect and the height was the same so I assume it will work but it leaves me to wonder which filter is actually correct?

 

[Buckgnarly]

For a while the Napa Gold filter for Subarus changed sizes, threw me off until I actually tried it and as you stated the o rings lined up. Ford also changed the dimensions of their filters a while back, the fl820S IIRC.

 

[Jerry/MT]

Went to napa and bought a replacement filter for my Massey 135. I was surprised when the filter seemed quite a bit smaller in diameter than the housing. Also the filter that was in the tractor was closer in size to the housing. The o rings provided all fit perfect and the height was the same so I assume it will work but it leaves me to wonder which filter is actually correct?

It's a partial flow filter to begin with so a slightly smaller filter diameter most likely means a little less filter area, all other things being equal. This is conjecture on my part but there is probably a range of effective filter area that's needed to get the proper filter life for this application and yourfilter is most likely in the correct range.
If you to the wix filter catalog on the web, you can find the correct dimensions of the particular filter you are supposed to have. You can compare that to the cannister dimensions to verify you have the correct filter.