neweagle

Okay, I did it; decided to get my hands dirty, roll up my sleeves, and change the oil in our '07 LTZ (5.3L Flex). I changed to syntheticat Jiffy Lube back at 1829 miles. It had been 8268 miles since, and I still had 16% showing on the DIC, which projects out to about 10,000 miles between changes. For this change, I went with Mobil1 Extended Performance 5W30, and the Mobill filter.

I know that it doesn't save much money (if any), but I guess I just wanted the peace of mind of knowing that everything had been done right. So, for the next noob who wants top change their own oil, here's a few things I took away:

1) Finding the jack points was easy. There's are long, thick metal bars that run parallel to the running boards (chassis frame?); I used the front of these as the jack points.

2) Once I was under the engine, the filter and drain plug were easy to spot.The filter is all the way at the bottom of the engine, which makes it easy to reach.I was actually surprised at how small the filter is; it's about half the size of the filter on the 4.0L engine on the Explorer that we traded-in.

3) There are no bars or wires in the "spurt path" of the oil once you remove the plug. It looked like the spurt mightreach a part of the chassis, but it didn't when I removed the plug, so as long as you position the catch pan right, there won't be a bunch of chassis that you have to wipe off.

4) The filter was the worst part to me:
a) Although it's easy to reach, it's partly surrounded by the crankcase, so your best bet is to get the strap type of filter wrench. The thin metal of the strap will fit in the small space between the filter and the crankcase; that might not be the case for the endcap-type wrenches out there. Mine didn't fit, but fortunately, the folks at Jiffy Lube had hand-tightened it at the last change, so I was able to get just enough of a grip to loosen it. Per ZX's advice, I filled the new filter before putting in on.
b) The biggest mess that I made was removing the filter. Since the filter screws in vertically, none of the oil that's in it will drain out when you remove the plug. There's a LOT of oil that starts to spill up over the top and down the side out as you unscrew the filter and break the seal between the filter and the crankcase. I wasn't expecting it, so it got a little messy. Next time, I think I'll punch a hole in the bottom of the filter and let it drain before I unscrew it.

Hope this helps someone!

engine2

Thanks for the tips.

fernandito7

So the filter can be easily hand tightened? Will this cause some sort of drip in the future? I had an 03 350z and i can easily hand tighten it with no problem and never got drips. I also own a ford truck and hand tightened it and got some drips . So i had to buy those oil wrenches to tighten it up but it kinda damages the filter cause gripping it hard so it can be tightened.

ZX1100F1

Nice write-up.

The factory filter is always installed very tight.
The proper way to tighten an oil filter is to go as tight as you can by hand (if you are strong this is good enough) otherwise go an additional 1/4-1/2 a turn with an oil filter wrench that will not distort the can.

There is not a big need to get the filter extremely tight as the oil and heat will cause the rubber gasket to swell and snug the filter up a little over time this is the reason that most of you can get the filter on hand tight but need to use a strap-wrench to remove it.

Typerod

Why did ZX suggest filling the new filter with oil? How much did you fill it?

neweagle

Far be it for me to speak for the most knowledgeable person on this forum, but ZX's suggestion had to do with the the first few moments after starting an engine with a fresh oil change (I think he called it a "dry start". Since all of the new oil is in the bottom of the crankcase, there's very little to lubricate the engine upon the first start.Just like the fuel filter is the first thing gas passes through before it gets to the engine, I guess the oil filter is the first thing that the new oil will pass through, so it makes sense to fill it to minimize the stress of a dry start.

neweagle

As far as how much, I filled it to the brim.

73shark

You fill it almost full and let set for a minute then top off again. There's another thread talking about the benefits of filling the filter.

For a filter wrench, I recommend the cup kind that fit a particular size filter and have a 3/8" drive in the bottom. Makes it very easy to get it off. Before you punch a hole to drain filter, make sure you first can break it loose. If you drain it & then can't get it off, you are up the creek w/o a paddle.

engine2

Great Advise -

McGuireV10

You can also buy a K&N oil filter which has a sort of a "nut" shaped piece on the bottom which allows you to install and remove the filter using a ratchet and a 1" socket. At least I think it's 1", maybe it's 3/4". A bit large, but it's about a thousand times easier than any strap wrench I've ever used, and K&Ns are arguably some of the best filters out there (pre-filled with oil or not, LOL).