Rivernut

I changed my oil on my "new" '96 5.7 liter suburban, used Mobil 1 and a Fram Tough Guard filter and all I have to show for it is a well oiled underside. I only went about a tenth of a mile, heard a "clink..thud!" and saw the check gauges light come on. I saw the oil pressure was at zero, and came right back to the garage with it. There was oil everywhere underneath. I looked at where the oil filter should be and it was gone! [:-]I got in my little Saturn and went looking and found the filter with the threaded fitting attached. I had heard a small pop when I was hand tightening the filter. I guess the threads pulled out of the cooler adapter. I assume it must have been stripped before I got my hands on it. I have seen a lot of things over the years with engines, but never this. My questions are:

1) Is there anything else that would have fallen out when the threaded fitting came out such as an anti-siphon valve (ball and spring sorta thing)?

2) Can I get a new fitting and Loctite it in if it holds reasonable torque or should I replace the entire cooler adapter?

3) What is the torque value for the fitting?

4) Any of you ever hear of this happening? Are these weak threads?

DAVID L. PAUL

i've never heard off it happening for sure it was correct filter or faulty filter from factory

Rivernut

It was not the filters fault since it was still screwed onto the oil fitting. The failure was at the other end where it pulled past the threads and yanked it past the threads. I really don't think I'm strong enough to over twist a filter to that point, so it must have been damaged from the previous owner. The Fram filter has that black grip stuff, so I was able to tighten it very easily by hand. I figure they used a filter wrench and over tightened it at some point, it pulled out, then they put it back together, then I came along.