Oil Filters

[sailaway78]

Those of you who change your own oil, how do you deal with the mess of changing the filter. My Yanmar has a filter mounted horizontally on the side of the block, and it is impossible to get it off without drooling oil all over. I have solved this somewhat by poking a hole in the end of the filter with a screwdriver, and letting it drain out before removal. This does help reduce the amount of dirty oil coming out of the filter, but there is still some. I have tried everything, and so far have been only able to reduce the mess, but not eliminate it. Had strongly considered using one of the kits and moving the filter to mount if vertically, but some research showed some problems with these. So if some of you have a better idea, I would certainly like to hear it. Currently it takes longer to clean up than to change it.

 

[Bill Roosa]

I feel your pain

I plan my oil change so that the engine has not been run in a few days, drain the oil and then replace the filter. I stuff a large rag under the filter and covering all the engine parts and then in a well thought out and practiced (use the new filter to determine exactly what movements you can and can not get away with) movement, remove the filter.Auto parts stores have remote filter mounts that should work. They stand up to auto racing so they should work fine on a boat too.What where your concerns with remoting the oil filter?

 

[Idratherbesailing]

Use a plastic bag over the filter

I take a plastic food storage bag that is large enough to cover the entire filter with some left over...you can get the back to catch just about all of the oil if you are careful...I even do this on the vertical filters, as it stops all the mess associated with filter changing.

 

[Ross]

I drain the oil and then hand crank the

engine with the compression release open and pump the crankcase again then hand crank again that gets most of the oil out of the filter. after that it is the rags and wipe up routine.. Onan has the best arrangement that I have ever seen. They mount a spout under the filter that dirests the spill away from the block to where you can catch it.

 

[sailaway78]

Remote FiltersB

Bill, I do like the idea of the remote filter, and the one I had considered has a built in oil cooler, which I also like. Problem seems to be a fairly high failure rate of the gasket, where the adapter screws on to the old filter location. Am certainly going to do a little more research on this, and maybe the info. I have isn't good. Could be the result of who ever installed the thing not doing it right. I think on the new Hunters, or maybe the new Yanmars, there is a little plastic thingy, under the filter, that works kind of like a funnel to direct the old oil out in such a way so you can catch it in a container. I always run my engine enough to warm it up some, before changing the oil. It seems to make sense to me to get it warm, because it is much easier to get out through that little bitty tube, and to get as many contaminates as possible in suspension so you get them out. Pretty sure that the Yanmar book instructs you to warm the engine some before changing the oil. I do know it says to change the filter every 100 hours, and the oil every 300 hours. I sure don't follow that advice, in fact mine rarely goes 100 hours between changes.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Hot vs cold oil changes

I'd agree that a hot oil change would be significantly better is it where not for the following observations:I change the oil more frequently than 100 hours as do most other boaters. My oil is not that dirty but does have more than normal water as the engine does not get up to temp for long (> 1 hour) enough to boil off the water.The oil was hot when I stopped the engine last and has now drained into the crankcase with all the bad stuff in it. I think spreading it around the engine before I change the oil is going to get less of it out.The big problem in boat engines is water not acids and such, so draining when cool actually gets the water out better as it drains into the crankcase and does not get boiled into the air in the engine only to condense into the new oil.I always change the filter as that is about 0.5 qt of dirty oil that will immediately get dumped into your clean oil if you don't. The amount of contaminants you leave when you don't change the filter VASTLY outweighs the amount you get out with hot oil.You can tell if you are doing a good job by noting the dipstick after the engine has been run once after an oil change. If the stick comes out with black oil on it you need to change the oil again and put on a new filter. Mine routinely comes out clean until late in the season. It never comes out "black as sin" like it did when I bought the boat.It is my belief that lots of boats get re-powered (say thousands of dollars) well before they need to simply because owners don't change the oil in the fall during de-commissioning. The stuff in the crankcase and film in the bearings sits there all winter doing bad things. Better I think to change it in the fall, run the engine for a few minutes to get as much clean oil spread around the engine and the pull the boat.

 

[RAD]

Two things I do

First is I take a babys diaper(pampers) and lay it under the filter then I take this small plastic tub that fits perfectly under the filter and in between other enginge stuff so that when I loosen my sideways mounted filter the oil goes in the tub and any that escapes the tub the diaper gets, this seems to make changing and cleaning up a lot easier.I think I'll go another step and put a plastic bag over it this year and I agree with Bill about keep changing the filter and oil cause when I bought my boat the oil was BLACK and now it stays cleaner a lot longer as the years go by cause I've been changing just the filter in the middle of the season in addition to two oil changes a year.

 

[tom]

Cold Oil

Cold oil is hard to pump out of the engine. Also I have a 5 gallon container for old oil. When I dump this oil out there is always a black residue that probably isn't good for the engine. Rags work but those little oil absorbing mats work better to catch oil that runs out of the filter. Has anyone tried changing the oil by pumping the oil out through the filter??? That would sure be easier than the dipstick hole.  For you tree huggers when I dump out my oil I always find a nice creek...not. Autozone takes my old oil.

 

[LancerDude]

Nasty...

I can only wish designers would give us a better way.

 

[higgs]

My routine

I use an old oil bottle, cut the side out of it, and place it under the spot where the filter will leak as I unscrew it.You must do an oil change when the oil is hot otherwise particulates will sink to the bottom of the pan . Those particulates will stay in your engine and become part of the new oil to be circulated throughout the engine. You want the particulates suspended in the oil you take out of your engine and the only way to achieve that is for the oil to be hot. I have done countless oil changes on boats and have dreaded the job until I found the Moeller extracter kit. See page 597 in the West Marine catalog.

 

[sailaway78]

More on oil changes

Bil, I have to disagree about the hot vs cold oil change. Moistue in the oil will settle out to the bottom of the pan, almost impossible to get out, as will most of the particulate matter. When ran for a few minutes, or at least untill warm some portion of this gets absorbed into the oil. There just isn't any way I know of to get it all out of there. So, we can agree to disagree on this.About pumping the oil out through the filter. Don't know about that, but I did read in a engine manual, I think it was a Westerbeke one, that you could change the oil by running the engine with the sending unit or some such out, and shut it off soon as it quit pumping oil. That is definately not for me. I have thought about putting a " T " at the sending unit and installing a valve or a cap there. Then open the compression release and spin the enging over to pump the oil out. Think that would work, but I would NEVER run the engine with that open.

 

[Landsend]

I use a lage plastic cup under the filter...

as I remove the filter...Also, about five years ago I removed (about ten bolts) drilled and tapped a drain plug. And now oil changes are a whole lot easier. I ever found a tupperware container that fits under the sump.

 

[Monty Miller]

Try this...

Punch two holes in the filter. One on the top to let the air in and one on the bottom to drain the oil. I take a screwdriver and punch a hole right through the horizontal filter starting at the top and coming out the bottom. I only get a few drops of oil to clean up after unscrewing the filter.

 

[Steve O.]

pet peeve of mine

I'd like to get my hands on the Yanmar engineer who thought it wasn't necessary to put a drain plug in the oil pan of the 2GM20F.

 

[Warren Milberg]

The same "engineer"

...who put that horizontal oil filter in the Yanmar 2GM20F (and probably lots of other Yanmars) also is responsible for having the raw water pump cover face aft...FWIW, after I drain my oil, I put some paper towels and a small plastic tray (from a frozen food dinner!) under the filter before removing it. I then put plastic baggie (which the newspaper came in)over the loosened filter and take if off as fast a possible, dropping it into the plastic bag. Most of the time, only a little oil drips down the motor mount stringers...

 

[MKing]

Common Place

Remote filters are common place in my neck of the woods. I've seen them on many power boats and we use them quite often on trucks to provide easy access and increase oil capacity. The only weak link seems to be the lines.Steve O, I couldn't agree more. I been thinking about ordering an oil pan gasket (assuming it has one/haven't checked) and tapping my pan for a drain plug one rainy day.

 

[AXEL]

Plastic bag

I use the same method as Jim Logan. I use a zip lock plastic bag large enough to cover the oil filter. I also place a piece of that oil absorbing paper under the filter. It's a good idea to loosen the oil filter first, then slip the plastic bag on and continue to turn. If your careful, you won't spill a drop. For draining the oil, I've been using that small Jasco pump that fits on a electric drill. It works great and sucks up almost all the oil. No mess.