I recently did the first oil change on my SMB and during this discovered that the oil lines to the Amsoil filters were hooked up incorrectly. The lines were reversed so the oil was flowing backwards through the filter. I hope this is an isolated incident but if you have this system I would urge you to check that the hoses are hooked up correctly.
For the following description I will refer to the oil ports as right and left with the right being the passengers side and the left being the drivers side. The oil filters are located under the van directly below the drivers seat. There are two flexible hoses that run from the front of the filter head to an adapter block on the rear left corner of the engine. The hoses should be hooked up as follows on the 6.0 PSD. The hose on the left port of the filter head should be connected to the right port on the adapter block. The right port of the filter head should be connected to the left port on the adapter block.
I discovered the problem when I was changing my oil. I installed the new filters and filled the engine with oil. I then started the van to check for leaks. Since the oil is not supposed to flow to the bypass (larger) filter until the oil temp reaches 160-165 degrees I let the engine warm up to operating temperature. I felt both filters and with the engine at 190 degrees the bypass filter was still cold, indicating that no oil was flowing through it. I called Jim at Amsoil and described the problem and he said it sounded like I had a bad filter head so he overnighted me a new filter head.
Yesterday I removed the old filter head and once I had it on the workbench I could see that it only has one moving part which is the thermostatic valve. This is a simple spring valve the moves a plunger and everything seemed to be working correctly so I decided to check to see that the system was hooked up correctly. I could not find any markings on the adapter block on the engine that indicated the direction of flow so I performed a very low tech test. I put a 5 gallon bucked under the two hoses and cranked the engine over a couple of times a looked to see which hose the oil was coming out of, sure enough it was the hose that had been hooked the output port on the filter head. I called Heber and SMB West and her confirmed that the right port on the adapter block is the oil supply.
I called Jim back and told him what I found and he told me to go ahead and install the new head as it was a new improved design and to return the one off of my van back to him. Jim was great during this and any of you considering using Amsoil I would definitely urge you to contact him. He will definitely go the extra mile to make sure you are happy.
The new filter head is installed and working perfectly and it doesn't appear as if any permanent damage has been done to the engine. Fortunately I have another 95,000 miles left on my engine warranty if there are any problems.
Amsoil is interesting stuff. I have worked on a lot of engines and had my hands covered with oil many times. Usually liquid dish soap and hot water takes oil right off, not Amsoil. I had to wash my hands multiple times and they still felt, not oily, but just slippery.
If you check your filters please post the results along with the year of your van and which Sportsmobile location that it was built so we can determine if this is an isolated incident or a more wide spread problem. My van is an '08 that was built by SMB West between Feb and June of '08.
Heber sent me this diagram, if any of you want a full size copy of this just shoot me an email.
John.