A Warning About New Oil Filters

[NightTrain]

I generally don't change my vehicles oil anymore myself. I'd rather pay someone else to do it.

But I change my own oil in the boat's Ford 302, and this Summer I had a friend that did a backflip off a truck up on the North Slope and broke both of his elbows and wrists... he was helpless and miserable for a large portion of the Summer, and his new wife probably had to do a few things for him that are unmentionable.

I went over to his house to visit with him and take care of a few things that he couldn't. One of the tasks was to change the oil in his boat's 350 Kodiak.

We changed the oil, greased her up, put the canvas on, and launched in the lake next to his house. He fired her up and we idled out into the middle of the lake. I lifted the doghouse to check the engine as we idled, and there was oil everywhere. Yikes! I yelled at him to shut it down, and we paddled it over to the launch & pulled it back out.

It turns out that the old oil filter had left the gasket on the block when I removed it. Of course, the new filter also had a gasket, so the result was a double-gasketed oil filter that naturally blew out when the engine fired up, spewing all that new Mobil 1 Synthetic all over everything. It was a FRAM filter.

From now on, I'm going to look at the old oil filter coming off the engine and make sure that the gasket is still there. Always before, those were glued securely to the filter, but it appears that's not the case anymore. It took less than 30 seconds to empty all 5 quarts of oil with the double-gasket arrangement, and we were lucky we caught the problem before it destroyed that 350 Kodiak.

[jimnyc]

Wow, that sucks, good tip to look out for. I bring mine to a local mechanic for $37 bucks as I'm a lazy bastard.

[sundaydriver]

It turns out that the old oil filter had left the gasket on the block when I removed it. .

This is most often caused by not coating the gasket on the filter with oil before putting it on. The oil & filter get pretty darn hot causing that gasket to vulcanize to the metal surface if not sufficiently coated and separate from the filter during removal. And only "hand tighten" the darn thing when you twist it on.

Wix brand filters are the best. They also manufacture the NAPA brand gold filters. Fram filterers and a lot of others are only cardboard inside.

[NightTrain]

This is most often caused by not coating the gasket on the filter with oil before putting it on. The oil & filter get pretty darn hot causing that gasket to vulcanize to the metal surface if not sufficiently coated and separate from the filter during removal. And only "hand tighten" the darn thing when you twist it on.

Wix brand filters are the best. They also manufacture the NAPA brand gold filters. Fram filterers and a lot of others are only cardboard inside.


Yep, I always lube the gasket with some oil on my finger before screwing it on. And this engine was cold, so it wasn't an issue of vulcanizing - and the old gasket came off with the new oil filter when I removed it after failure.

Could have been a defect, but I'm leaning more toward a new process to save a buck in manufacturing with not gluing the damn things on to the filter!

Just wanted to point this out in the hopes it saves someone from a potential engine seize... I never expected such a silly thing to occur.

[sundaydriver]

Yep, I always lube the gasket with some oil on my finger before screwing it on. And this engine was cold, so it wasn't an issue of vulcanizing - and the old gasket came off with the new oil filter when I removed it after failure.

Could have been a defect, but I'm leaning more toward a new process to save a buck in manufacturing with not gluing the damn things on to the filter!

Just wanted to point this out in the hopes it saves someone from a potential engine seize... I never expected such a silly thing to occur.

The last time this happened to me was probably 20 years ago. Of course it was a damn cold February day, in my driveway, with the engine at ambient temperature. My fault for not doing it when the engine was warm to the touch. Took me about 2 hours to get the damn thing off and to get the new filter on.

The vulcanization happens the first few times the engine gets to operating temp, and then it's on there.

[glockmail]

I had this happen to me a couple years ago, it was either my 05 Mustang or 04 Explorer, I forget which, as they both have the same 4.0 V6 engine. The old filter was a cheap brand that Quick-Lube had put on, and the O ring stayed on the block and I didn't realize it until after I had started to re-fill the crankcase. Looking at the old filter, it did not have the deformations that keep the O ring mated to the filter.

I've used Fram filters for years but noticed that they've gotten a lot cheaper and have also "lost" this feature, and talking to several folks in the retail end I've upgraded my normal filter choice to Wix. O'Reilly's has them. They are made in NC so they must be good...

Here's a photo of the business end of the Wix filter for the Ford 4.0 engine, with the O ring loose.

The "best" filter, according to my engine builder, is Fram Racing. Apparently it's made completely different than their retail brand.

[LongTermGuy]

I had this happen to me a couple years ago, it was either my 05 Mustang or 04 Explorer, I forget which, as they both have the same 4.0 V6 engine. The old filter was a cheap brand that Quick-Lube had put on, and the O ring stayed on the block and I didn't realize it until after I had started to re-fill the crankcase. Looking at the old filter, it did not have the deformations that keep the O ring mated to the filter.

I've used Fram filters for years but noticed that they've gotten a lot cheaper and have also "lost" this feature, and talking to several folks in the retail end I've upgraded my normal filter choice to Wix. O'Reilly's has them. They are made in NC so they must be good...

Here's a photo of the business end of the Wix filter for the Ford 4.0 engine, with the O ring loose.

The "best" filter, according to my engine builder, is Fram Racing. Apparently it's made completely different than their retail brand.



*Is that `your` sweet looking "GT" in the avatar?

[glockmail]

*Is that `your` sweet looking "GT" in the avatar?

No. Too many toys right now, not enough room in the stable for what I have now, never mind another. I'll start a thread about it.

[LongTermGuy]

No. Too many toys right now, not enough room in the stable for what I have now, never mind another. I'll start a thread about it.


​Understand....and yes...Toys are fun...will watch for your thread...

[glockmail]

​Understand....and yes...Toys are fun...will watch for your thread... http://www.debatepolicy.com/showthread.php?52473-My-stable