neweagle

Thanks ZX! I was hoping you'd weigh in here; I'll follow the OLM. Also, thanks for the tip about filling the oil filter; I'd always wondered about those few moments during and after the first startup after an oil change.

That leads to another question: Do you count the oil that you pour into the filter as part of the total amount? In other words, if the recommended amount of oil is 6 liters (I don't know the exact amount), and I pour 1/2 liter into the filter, then do I pour 5.5 into the crankcase, or do I still use 6 liters? Hope it's not too dumb of a question. THANKS!

ZX1100F1

Yes the oil that is poured into the filter counts towards the 6 quart total but always be sure to use the dipstick so you don't over-fill just in case you didn't get a complete drain of the old oil.

McGuireV10

That's really only a problem if your vehicle has been stored for a LONG time (years).

I've disassembled engines that haven't been run in as much as a year and the internals still have a pretty serious coating of oil. In fact, just last month we left an old (to be discarded) engine resting on an old tire in the corner of my garage for about a week, sans oil pan and valve covers, and when we moved it, the middle of the tire was full of oil -- more than enough to get the engine safely through the start-up. That engine hadn't been run in about six months.

On top of that, if I recall correctly, Chevy smallblock oil pumps generally run about 12 gallons per minute, so that's only a hair over 1 second to fill that filter... and that's ignoring the fact that about 75% of the engine oil doesn't even run through the fitler.

It certainly doesn't hurt anything, but it's also unlikely to make any appreciable difference. In my opinion, of course.

ZX1100F1

So we're better off not filling the filter with oil then?
That makes perfect sense to me, I don't knw what on earth I could have been smoking when I suggested the opposite.

07summitwhite

I'M not sure where the oil filter is even at on my suburban, but I do know the oil filter on my motorcycle ison the sideof the bikebehind theshifter and the filter is installed horizontal and not vertical. If I filled the filter with oil and then tried to install it on the bike I would have more oil on the outside of the bike and on the ground then in the filter and motor itself.

Morel of the story:

What do people do with oil filters that are installed hoizontally where the oil will leak out when turned on its side?

ZX1100F1

Some engines are impossible to pre-fill the oil filter.
If you think that residual oil film provides adequate lubrication then drain out your oil and fire her up then stand back and count the seconds.
In one single second the average engine will make about 15 revolutions, but for those of you that have changed your own oil yourself you can clearly see that it takes several seconds for the oil pressure to come alive after an oil change, if you pre-fill the filter the oil pressure comes up much quicker.
In one oil change (or even a dozen) you will not benefit from pre-filling the filter but over the life of the vehicle (for those that plan on owning it long) you will most certainly.







If you have a car that has a horizontally mounted oil filter then you roll it over on its side before you install the filter (duh).

07summitwhite

Now why didn't I think of that.

McGuireV10

I'm not trying to turn this into a pissing match, but a whole bunch of engines, GM included (look to the old big blocks for example) can fall as low as 8 or 10 PSI at idle, only ramping up to 40-60 PSI as the RPMs increase, and often somewhat slowly at that. A second or two for the pressure to come up isn't the end of the world. Draining the oil from the pan and the filter doesn't leave you with a dry engine by any stretch of the imagination. I could go on and on... for example, heat is the primary factor in thinning out oil, and you have virtually no heat (compared to the temps at which you'd see lubrication issues) in the engine at start-up.

As for "drain out your oil and fire her up", I never said don't run it with out oil. I said the residual oil is adequate to get you past that very brief start-up period... that second or so when the new oil is moving around. Again, around 75% of your oil moving through the engine doesn't even pass through the filter before going into the rest of the engine, so you're not really getting that much of a "shortfall" by starting with a dry filter.

Without doing a whole bunch of highly controlled tests, you can't state that you will "most certainly" benefit from prefilling your filter. (And before you jump on that, I said prefilling is "unlikely" to help enough to matter, which is a far cry from stating it'll "most certainly" make a difference.) Honestly if it was that big a deal, I'm pretty sure after 100 years of building automobiles, most manufacturers would go ahead and mention this in their owner's manuals, or at least in the shop manual.

Again, as I said, it certainly won't hurt anything, but it's kind of like buying premium gasoline when you don't need the octane number. It's unnecessary but it makes some people happy, so go for it. There are a whole bunch of old wive's tales relating to cars and maintenance, and I consider this one of them, so I thought I'd throw my opinion out there. It's a discussion forum, right? I'm discussing.

And finally, that was just damned funny.

ZX1100F1

You've convinced me, I'm sure as heck not going to pre-fill my filters any longer..................I just knew it was a bad idea.

McGuireV10