Oil Change - remove filters first?

Hello,

I plan to change the engine oil this weekend and the 2 oil filters on my single 2006 Yanmar 6LY2AN-STP. 440 HP..I am close to the 100 Hr point.

It was recommended to replace the 2 oil filters first, prior to running the engine, since they are on the upper top most point of the engine and in an effort to lessen the oil spill mess (with the viscosity of the oil being room temp and not so runny)..

The reason was that when the oil is thinner, and when removing the filters, of course the oil goes everywhere due to the horizontal position they mount in..they said garbage bags, rags etc. didnt really work to good..

I assume the filters are about 1/4 filled with oil as they sit now.....

I assume when I unscrew them that oil will spill out.

I plan to take note of the amount of oil that was in the filter when removed and try to re-fill the new filter?

Looking for comment and suggestion..

Picture attached to show filter position..

Thanks

I don't understand the part where you say 'prior to running the engine'.
Do you mean replace the filters and then run the engine up to temperature?
Then change the oil??
I wouldn't do that because old used oil will remain in the filters.
Whatever oil is left in the filters can be dealt with using rags and bags.
Don't over think it.

For the future, I wouldn't be surprised if someone has an adapter to mount the filters
in a more convenient vertical orientation.

I would suggest preheating the oil by running the main 10-15 minutes.
Punch a hole on the top of each oil filter.
Remove oil fill cap.
Drain oil from crank case.
Tape holes on filters.
Remove oil filters. You can use a plastic bag to wrap around the filers once loose to help catch residual oil in the filters.


Install new filters. Remember to rub oil on the filter seal.
Add oil.
Run engine for a few minutes.
Check and top off oil.


Presto, complete.


Btw, you never remove the full amount in the crankcase so don't add the full amount of new oil. Add less then prescribed, run engine, then check and top off as necessary.

w8n4sun said:

I would suggest preheating the oil by running the main 10-15 minutes.
Punch a hole on the top of each oil filter.
Remove oil fill cap.
Drain oil from crank case.
Tape holes on filters.
Remove oil filters. You can use a plastic bag to wrap around the filers once loose to help catch residual oil in the filters.


Install new filters. Remember to rub oil on the filter seal.
Add oil.
Run engine for a few minutes.
Check and top off oil.


Presto, complete.


Btw, you never remove the full amount in the crankcase so don't add the full amount of new oil. Add less then prescribed, run engine, then check and top off as necessary.

Click to expand...

Great advice!!!

I use a lot of absorbent pads when changing my filters. Soaks the oil right up.

well I guess what I mean is- by not running the engine prior to oil change, the oil will not be as runny, therefore the oil mess might not be as bad when removing the old filters..as I suspect the oil that will spill from when the old filters as they are unscrewed/removed will spill all down the engine case etc.

Steps-
1.Remove both old oil filters
2. Install 2 new oil filters
3. Drain old oil (exchanger pump)
4. Fill with new oil

I'm probably overthinking this I'm sure..

jefndeb said:

well I guess what I mean is- by not running the engine prior to oil change, the oil will not be as runny, therefore the oil mess might not be as bad when removing the old filters..as I suspect the oil that will spill from when the old filters as they are unscrewed/removed will spill all down the engine case etc.

Steps-
1.Remove both old oil filters
2. Install 2 new oil filters
3. Drain old oil (exchanger pump)
4. Fill with new oil

I'm probably overthinking this I'm sure..

Click to expand...

You are. The above is sound.

I have Cat 3208s and two oil filters. When I change them I get a lot of oil draining, so I have learned to pile a bunch of the absorbent pads under the filters. Very little mess.

Good advice so far follow it.
I only have 1 filter on the same engine but if you gont run it you dont heat it up and mix in any sediment. If you tun it after changing filters you fill them with dirty oil.
Run it hard it best not just idle at dock.
Remove fill cap, punch hole in top end of filters to let them drain.
There should be s clear hose in the well below the filter Mtg. Place it in a container... old oil jug if you get much in the well and it is warm it should drain yo the jug.
Remove filter and place in a doubled plastic bag. Repeat and replace filters and refill w oil. When cranking hold the stop button for a short while (10-15 secs) while cranking. This prevents firing s loading before oil gets circulated. This is the start up procedure in the manual after extended shift down for the same reason. Run, recheck, top off to full on dipstick.
Have a cold one.
I make it a practice to drain using the xchg pump but refill from gal jugs and fill cap & funnel inserted. I hate to.pump the dirty oil In the drain tube back into the engine.

Oil absorbing sheets bale of 100 for about $30 on Amazon.

You can try the hole punch method but for my inverted filter that just made more mess. As an alternative: Prep the new filters. Spin those filters off fast one at a time with oil sheets under and into a bucket. One filter off, new filter spun into place because oil will ooze out of the open housing, then onto the second. You also might be able to get a “form-a-funnel “ under the filter flange to catch the drippings.

As others have said. Oil absorbent pads and zip lock bags to try to catch the old oil (after the warm up). Have new filters ready nearby with the seal already wiped with new oil.

Don't run old oil in your brand new filters! Seems counterproductive.

I have previously used the zip lock bag & pads on another boat / engine but...
The biggest problem I have found on the Yanmars is there is very little space between the filter and the housing under it. Certainly no room for an oil pad and barely a plastic bag. In fact I had couple different brand filters than I usually use last change that would not screw on as the OD was a small fraction of an inch larger and prevented the filter from mounting square to even start the threads.
There is a bit of a well to capture the oil and a drain hole w hose that does help.

The modern engine uses detergent oil , which will hold gunk in suspension so its carried to the filters.

The "fines" which can slip thru the filters cause much of the engine wear.

The best oil change is after the longest run you usually do 4 hours 8 hours ?

This hot oil time gives the detergent time to loosen and carry the fines in suspension, so they can be drained,and discarded.

Diesels are efficient so time running in the slip does nothing to bring up the oil temp to help clean the engine.

Its never fun to do a looong day and then change the engine oil, but if you are all setup to do it , your engine will die slower.

You can always puncture the filter with a nail and drain them before unscrewing.

Bacchus,
From the photos and your description, I don't like that setup. It sounds like it is next to impossible to avoid spilling oil all over the place. You can never get it all "mopped up" leading to the smell of burning or hot oil, which is not pleasant IMO.

I'd recommend a public caning for the Yanmar engineers who came up with that. And a lifetime sentence of changing those filters for free. It was certainly devoid of the thought process.

The very first thing I would do if I got those filters off, is add remote adapters and move them to an easily accessible vertical space.

For difficult to drain filters etc I find form-a-funnel can be very helpful. Bend it, shape it to drain the oil where you want it to go.

You can find em on Ebay, Amazon, at NAPA.

A combination of form a funnel and poking a hole in the filter to drain it sounds like the cleanest way to change these filters.

The filter location is based on space. The manufacturer needed to meet a height and length requirement which dictated a difficult filter location.

Listen to the advice for reorienting the filters so they are easier to replace without spills.

I reoriented my Lehman 120 oil filter and relocated the Westerbeke generator oil filter to ease element changes and prevent spills. Makes annual service less unpleasant.

firehoser75 said:

Bacchus,
From the photos and your description, I don't like that setup. It sounds like it is next to impossible to avoid spilling oil all over the place. You can never get it all "mopped up" leading to the smell of burning or hot oil, which is not pleasant IMO.

Click to expand...

DDW said:

I'd recommend a public caning for the Yanmar engineers who came up with that. And a lifetime sentence of changing those filters for free. It was certainly devoid of the thought process.

The very first thing I would do if I got those filters off, is add remote adapters and move them to an easily accessible vertical space.

Click to expand...

I agree to a large extent. There is a lot of room for improvement.
At least Yanmar thought about it and designed the well under the gasket end of the filter(s) does an reasonable job of capturing the oil especially if small amounts. As long as the oil is warm and I remember to run the drain hose I to a jug. That's why I prefer to puncture and drain as much as possible.
The first time I did it with a mostly full filter it over wheeled the collection well and ran all over.
A remote set up with vertical filters would ideal but I dont have a good place with enough space to mount it.
Once the technique is learned it really isn't too bad.

Get engine close to operating temp, like 10min at 1200. Shut down. Crack loose filters JUST ENOUGH for seal to let air in at the top, but seal is still in place at the bottom. So air can get in, oil does not come out (much). Leave it that way while you go and pump out the sump. By the time you are done with that, the filters will have drained a good bit.

Note that the housing under the filters will catch the dribbles and it has a drain port at the back. You can rig up something to catch the dribbles at that port.

If filters do not drain much by cracking them loose, progressively loosen them so the spill rate does not overwhelm your drain rig. Once fully loosened and draining has stopped, take filters off and chuck them. Clean out the pit, screw new filters on.

Do one final suck out of the main sump to get what dropped out of the filters and oil cooler.

Pour in new oil, test run, shut down, check level. Should be mid on the stick.

Done a bunch of these, that's how I do it.

update -

Oil change complete, minimum oil run off from filter change, (the PO had installed a little drain tube, as mentioned, that we had stuffed in a empty water bottle.)

Poured in 5 Gallons, ran engine, checked for leaks...gonna wait until morning to check dip stick, add if needed.

Thanks to all who commented....

I do want to admit that I had the Oil Xchangers valve in the wrong position at first, no oil was being pumped into container... until the boss got down there and set me straight....gonna take a while to live that one down...

J

jefndeb said:

update -

... until the boss got down there and set me straight....gonna take a while to live that one down...

J

Click to expand...

Already getting yourself in trouble huh....

As previously stated anytime i am doing a filter that i don't want spillage i use a zip lock bag and using a sharp punch put a hole in the bottom and top near the end of the filter. slip the bag over with a rubber band. Then i drain the pan and give a lot of time for the filters to drain. Then unscrew without removing the bag. Barely any oil if time is given.

magna 6882 said:

As previously stated anytime i am doing a filter that i don't want spillage i use a zip lock bag and using a sharp punch put a hole in the bottom and top near the end of the filter. slip the bag over with a rubber band. Then i drain the pan and give a lot of time for the filters to drain. Then unscrew without removing the bag. Barely any oil if time is given.

Click to expand...

Good idea. I will try that next time.

Jeff,
Stuff like that happens.... don't take it too hard. I am sure we all have our own stories Glad it all worked out!

"I'd recommend a public caning for the Yanmar engineers who came up with that. And a lifetime sentence of changing those filters for free. It was certainly devoid of the thought process.I'd recommend a public caning for the Yanmar engineers who came up with that. And a lifetime sentence of changing those filters for free. It was certainly devoid of the thought process."


The reason for oil filters mounted poorly is the engine mfg or converter wants to send drawings to boat assemblers and NA that show the smallest profile or footprint so the engine can fit in more boats.

FF said:

"


The reason for oil filters mounted poorly is the engine mfg or converter wants to send drawings to boat assemblers and NA that show the smallest profile or footprint so the engine can fit in more boats.

Click to expand...

Understand but in this case another 1/4 - 1/2" would make things soooooo much easier.

jefndeb said:

update -

Oil change complete, minimum oil run off from filter change, (the PO had installed a little drain tube, as mentioned, that we had stuffed in a empty water bottle.)

Poured in 5 Gallons, ran engine, checked for leaks...gonna wait until morning to check dip stick, add if needed.

Thanks to all who commented....

I do want to admit that I had the Oil Xchangers valve in the wrong position at first, no oil was being pumped into container... until the boss got down there and set me straight....gonna take a while to live that one down...

J

Click to expand...

The same thing happened to me Jeff! I didn't realize the "handle" on the Xchanger was the pointer as well. I ended up over-filling one engine - long story. But I fixed it before I started it up and, so far, it seems no damage was done.

Tin foil makes a good moldable funnel.

Or drip pan.

jefndeb said:

update -

Oil change complete, minimum oil run off from filter change, (the PO had installed a little drain tube, as mentioned, that we had stuffed in a empty water bottle.)

Poured in 5 Gallons, ran engine, checked for leaks...gonna wait until morning to check dip stick, add if needed.

Thanks to all who commented....

I do want to admit that I had the Oil Xchangers valve in the wrong position at first, no oil was being pumped into container... until the boss got down there and set me straight....gonna take a while to live that one down...

J

Click to expand...

Hate it when that happens...