good reason to NOT prefill your oil filter

[fredx]

Fred, if you don't mind me asking, what are you driving that you're filling through valve covers?

2002 Jeep Wrangler 4.0 straight six

 

[bykfixer]

My car has 252,xxx miles on the engine so far and not once has the oil filter been primed.

If you want to prime you're filter 👍
If not 👍
No need to get all in a snit about it TD, sheesh.

 

[Mister Ed]

Agree, not sure I get the arguing, just move on.

I don't pre-fill mine, but +1 for the Amsoil, maybe it's marketing, but really dig how it helps out my rides.

 

[bykfixer]

I don't pre-fill mine, but +1 for the Amsoil, maybe it's marketing, but really dig how it helps out my rides.

Today's motor oil is so advanced it's crazy. Even conventional is superior to the stuff used long ago. My son uses all synthetic in his rides, where my old jalopies get high mileage type. We rebuilt an engine in one of his cars and 60k miles later you still have to look for the wet spot on the dipstick to check the oil level because the engine is so clean still.

The modern combustion engine is one hard working high reving machine in many cases so it makes sense to take any precaution one feels the need to.

But I take into account my lawnmower runs a constant 12k rpm's without a filter and the oil gets changed once a year. So I don't sweat it. The mower turned 12 last year and doesn't use a drop. 14oz in/ 14oz out each time.

Some of my retired Lexus buddies who don't drive much say they change theirs annually or even less.

 

[Stress_Test]

2002 Jeep Wrangler 4.0 straight six

I did a lot of oil changes on those 4.0s and if I remember right the oil filter goes straight horizontal to the block, so it CAN'T be pre-filled. So apparently the designers weren't terribly worried about it, and that 4.0 always seemed to be a pretty long-lived engine if it was reasonably maintained, so I'd say it's not an issue.

That said, I've always done some pre-fill on an oil filter before installing, maybe half a quart. Now I'm gonna use a flashlight to shine through the plastic bottle and look down inside first to make sure there are no visible chunks in the new oil!

Forgetting to put the new filter on is another issue entirely; I did that on a jeep 4.0 one time. Got distracted during the process and never put the new filter back on. Cranked the engine and watched the oil pressure gauge (like always) to verify pressure. Gauge stayed on zero for a few seconds and didn't come up and I shut off the engine and realized my mistake at the same time. Oil freakin' EVERYWHERE.

Cleaned up, went back to the parts/supply guy and told him I needed a few more quarts of oil. He laughed and said he knew what I just did!!

 

[fredx]

I did a lot of oil changes on those 4.0s and if I remember right the oil filter goes straight horizontal to the block, so it CAN'T be pre-filled. So apparently the designers weren't terribly worried about it, and that 4.0 always seemed to be a pretty long-lived engine if it was reasonably maintained, so I'd say it's not an issue.

That said, I've always done some pre-fill on an oil filter before installing, maybe half a quart. Now I'm gonna use a flashlight to shine through the plastic bottle and look down inside first to make sure there are no visible chunks in the new oil!

Forgetting to put the new filter on is another issue entirely; I did that on a jeep 4.0 one time. Got distracted during the process and never put the new filter back on. Cranked the engine and watched the oil pressure gauge (like always) to verify pressure. Gauge stayed on zero for a few seconds and didn't come up and I shut off the engine and realized my mistake at the same time. Oil freakin' EVERYWHERE.

Cleaned up, went back to the parts/supply guy and told him I needed a few more quarts of oil. He laughed and said he knew what I just did!!

Yep- you know them engines
Tough and durable

 

[Stress_Test]

Reminds me that some (all?) modern fuel injected vehicles have a crank bypass feature. Hold pedal down, crank engine. The injectors w/ shutoff until the pedal is released, allowing pressure to climb and the filter to fill.

Yes, I was taught that is a "clear flood" feature of fuel injected engines, going back pretty far, like 80's if I'm remembering right.

I don't know if that's still true on vehicles now or if/when that feature went away. A service manual might list the info somewhere if one knew where to look.

I'd be afraid to try it on my car (2007 model).

High RPM-ing a dead cold engine in neutral (no load) is VERY bad.

 

[BVH]

You could always find yourself a simple filter center hole plug, plug it and prefill using the peripheral holes so your pre-fill oil is filtered flowing into the center part of the filter.

 

[Remembertheslap]

Reminds me that some (all?) modern fuel injected vehicles have a crank bypass feature. Hold pedal down, crank engine. The injectors w/ shutoff until the pedal is released, allowing pressure to climb and the filter to fill.

Interesting. Which pedal do you hold down, turbodog? I might start doing this.

 

[raggie33]

I'm old school I changed my oil every 3 k miles

 

[orbital]

Agree, not sure I get the arguing, just move on.

I don't pre-fill mine, but +1 for the Amsoil, maybe it's marketing, but really dig how it helps out my rides.

+

Quoted for Amsoil

My buddy is building a new shop/garage & I just got him a 1.5'x5' banner to put up.
I figured Amsoil would be a neutral banner for his shop...👀

No prefilling oil filter

 

[Stress_Test]

Interesting. Which pedal do you hold down, turbodog? I might start doing this.

It's the gas pedal you hold down; full throttle i.e. full open. The idea is that it holds the throttle plates wide open to let the max amount of air through the engine but with the fuel shut off, in order to clear out excess gas in the cylinders if the engine was flooded.

NOTE >>>> In a correctly functioning electronic fuel-injected car, you shouldn't ever have to touch the gas pedal at all before cranking. I remember seeing a lot of old-school guys still pressing and releasing the gas pedal prior to cranking the engine on an F.I. car in order to "set the choke and prime the pump on the carb", which F.I. doesn't have of course

 

[bykfixer]

Oh man I can't count on both hands how many times I screwed up trying to set the choke on throttle body induction cars back the 80's. I was so used to having to set the choke on my GM jalopies it just took a while to realize those little 4 cylinder engines did not require it and in fact refused to cooperate at those times.

If I recall correct, motor oil back then had a bit of molybdenum (? sp) in it that acted as a lubricant while motors were cold or until oil circulated. Trouble was it clogged up the cat convertor quicker and contributed to sludge buildup inside the crank case.

I remember using Havoline oil in a freshly rebuilt Chevy 350 and it took a good while before the oil stopped looking like honey on the dipstick. Pennzoil on the other hand back then seemed cause black color to show on the dipstick rather quickly. I tried Havoline because Robert Yates used it his race cars. Now of course that was his sponsor but his engines held up as a rule better than many so I figured "hey it works for him, it'll work for me".

Now when I had 91 Honda Preludes with the B21 engine in 2012-15 I used STP oil treatment for the moly. The cylinder walls had a hardened material that destroyed cylinder rings. Many B21's didn't make it past 60k miles. I would wait until near time for an oil change as it was usually a little low anyway. I'd dump a bottle of STP oil treatment in the crank case and let it circulate for the next couple of uses. Usually about an hour total. Then dump the oil and do the oil change. When I sold the red one it had 235k and did not smoke at all. The black one had 175k when my son sold it. I had given that one to him for his birthday one year. We were restoring both but the red one was sold to fund the black and tan car project. He finished it and sold it to a Prelude collector. It wasn't mint but it was one of the nicest 91 Preludes at the car shows.

 

[badtziscool]

For a second, I thought I was on the bobistheoilguy forum. Talk about scrutinizing anything and everything related to engine oil. Those folks will argue whether oil produced on 4/5/2020 is better than oil produced on 4/6/2020.

For me, I've never prefilled my filter since I was 16. 44 now. Owned 6 cars all with over 150k miles and all of them had an issue at some point in time but never was it because of the engine internals. It was always just a sensor, or spark plug, or bad gas. Never oil related.

And it just wasn't worth the effort and potential mess created having to prefill an oil filter that's already slippery from your greasy oily hands, having to snake it up into the engine bay, turn it side ways or at some awkward angle (blindly sometimes), mate it to the threads, and spin it on. And hoping you don't either pour oil back out of the filter, or cross threading it.

 

[turbodog]

For a second, I thought I was on the bobistheoilguy forum. ...

Good forum there have there... oil equivalent of cpf.

 

[badtziscool]

Good forum there have there... oil equivalent of cpf.

Indeed. You do learn a lot poking around in there. Can get overwhelming at times, but I suppose that's similar to CPF. 99% of the population doesn't understand or care to understand CRI, Lux, reverse or forward clicky, mule, primary or rechargeable, etc.

 

[knucklegary]

Does anyone here run Royal Purple?
It's supposedly the Hi Cri of motor oils.

 

[hsa]

I used it once when it was on sale.

 

[raggie33]

When I still had a gas vehicle I changed my oil every 2500 miles or so. Oil is cheap and it's easy to change

 

[jabe1]

I have never prefilled an oil filter.
I have pulled fuel pump fuses and relays on newly rebuilt engines. I've owned or repaired all sorts of engines (I was a tech for a number of years)and only one gave out on me; my own '97 Dodge Ram 1500 with a 318. Despite my frequent oil changes, I determined that the previous owner hadn't been as diligent. When I pulled the pan, the amount of sludge plugging the pick up tube was unreal.
I did belong to a '72 MGB for a while and had to use Lucas oil stabilizer to keep it happy; now that is some amazing stuff!