MESSY OIL FILTER CHANGE

[thiggy]

I have a Sears lawn tractor which I purchased late last year (replacing my 22 year old Murrey). It has a 16 hp Koeher OHV motor with a spin-on oil filter. Well, my problem is how do I change the filter without dumping a load of oil all over the engine, as the filter is mounted upside-down!! There is a check valve which prevents the filter from draining back into the crankcase when the engine is turned off. Does anyone have a similarly mounted filter who has overcome this messy problem?? Thanks

 

[Bror Jace]

Thiggy, the oil filter is actually upside down, meaning the mounting plate on the motor looks straight up? Golly, that's weird! Our Honda is a less-than-ideal horizontal mount.

Hmmm ... if I've understood you correctly and what I said above is correct, you could always take a modest-sized nail and put 2-3 puncture holes in the filter (piercing the inner valves/seals) to let the oil drain out of filter before removing it.

However, I suppose some nasty bits of various contaminents which might have been trapped in the filter could come out with the oil and end up back in the crankcase, though, and there's no guarantee they'll flow out with the rest of the oil when you pull the drain plug. That doesn't sound that great.

I have found some drain plug and filter locations on power equipment to be in some pretty lousy locations. My solution is to generally put up with it "as is" and use a lot of rags/paper towels to minimize (then clean up) the resulting spillage.

--- Bror Jace

 

[Propflux01]

Send one of those " You are SO Stupid for having A MESSY set-up like this" letters and maybe they will be nice and send some kind of adapter to turn it 90 degrees or something....never know...

 

[Steve S]

some times you can loosen the filter to get air then retighten the filter, sometimes that will speed the draining of oil from the filter . The antidrain back valve is supose to keep the dirt from draining back into the oil system or as mentioned punch a hole in the top of the filter and let in sit over night and see what happens. Let us know how it works.

[ August 12, 2003, 03:11 PM: Message edited by: Steve S ]

 

[msparks]

quote:

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Originally posted by thiggy:
I have a Sears lawn tractor which I purchased late last year (replacing my 22 year old Murrey). It has a 16 hp Koeher OHV motor with a spin-on oil filter. Well, my problem is how do I change the filter without dumping a load of oil all over the engine, as the filter is mounted upside-down!! There is a check valve which prevents the filter from draining back into the crankcase when the engine is turned off. Does anyone have a similarly mounted filter who has overcome this messy problem?? Thanks

---

Install a remote filter, that allows you to mount it vertically!

 

[smeltjr]

there is no way around this. i have the same, actually Kohler Command 15.5 craftsman, motor since 99. i am now using a napa gold filter on it which i have not yet pulled off to see if any different, but i would not suspect so. i wrap an old tshirt around the bottom and spin it off as fast as i can. btw, if you ever see a factory service manual for these motors, some of the non sears models have a plug at the bottom to drain this out with no mess. sears wanted to save 2 cents. go figure.

 

[slickracer]

You might want to drain the oil after you mow and then change the filter the next day after it cools off. Any oil left in the filter would be "thicker" and not as apt to run all over the place.

 

[Brent]

I have this set up on my mower. There is a small pipe fitting plug in the side of the filter mount and I remove that plug to catch most of the oil from the filter in a shallow lid. After the oil is drained I stuff a couple of those blue paper towels under the filter mount to catch any residual oil.

This works pretty well.

Brent

 

[Schmoe]

Not picturing the exact engine setup in my head at the particular moment in time (too much fried chicken for lunch) but could you somehow tilt it over to one side opposite of the filter, drain oil and then "crack" the filter open a little to get some air in there as to not have a vacuum. All the oil should drain from the filter, then take the filter off and replace.