SMB stats
2006 Ford E350
6.0L diesel
39,500 miles
7500 miles since last Amsoil engine oil and filter change
15W-40 Heavy-Duty Diesel and Marine Motor Oil
Pre-change filters: EA026 full flow, and EABP100 bypass filter
Post-change filters: Donaldson 553411 full flow, and EABP100 bypass filter
Objectives:
1) Amsoil engine oil change
2) Change the full flow and bypass filters
3) Change from the EA026 filter to the Donaldson 553411 filter
4) Remove the restrictor in the filter head
5) Swap the oil lines leading to the filter head
Process followed:
1) Mark both installed filters with a silver Sharpie at four spots (1” from the base, 1” up from the bottom, a mid-point between the previous two point, and at the crown itself measured from underneath the filter). This would ensure that I measured the oil filter temperatures at the same location each time.
2) Mark a spot on the back of the oil pan, about midway between the bottom edge and the top of the oil pan. This would ensure that I measured the oil pan temperature at the same location each time.
3) Drive a minimum of 20 minutes at highway speeds to get the engine oil temperature up to full operating temperature (per Blackstone engine oil analysis recommendations).
4) Using a laser spot thermometer, measure the four spots on each filter, and one spot on the oil pan at my turn-around point just west of Santa Paula. [
Diesel at $2.17 a gallon, same price as Regular gas]. This location was about 12-14 minutes from the house, with about 90% of the time on the freeway with the cruise control set at 65mph. Therefore the roundtrip was 22-28 minutes, primarily at highway speeds, broken up only long enough to hop out and take the temperature readings at the turn-around point. All temps taken with the engine still running.
5) Repeated temperature process after arriving at home, with the engine still running.
6) Turned off engine and took engine oil sample (through dipstick tube) with pump from Blackstone.
7) Proceeded to perform oil change, filter change, restrictor removal and oil line swap. Marked spots on the new filters using the same criteria.
8) Banged up my knuckles and bruised my wrist, made a small mess, hands are now sore, and my back is stiff.
9) With everything restored, took the same drive and same process as above, but with the changes as noted above. Oil filter and oil pan temperatures taken at turn-around point and back home.
10) Proper Scientific Method would have been to make one of the changes and repeat the process, then make another change and repeat the process,….etc, but I was far from that inspired. It was a long enough day as it was.
Some observations and recommendations:
The 2.5 gallon jug of Amsoil is great for saving money over the 1 quart bottles, but it is very heavy and awkward to hold and transfer the oil through a funnel into the engine.
The engine oil does retain it’s heat for quite some time, so be careful when doing this work.
The Allen head plug requires a 5/16” inch Allen wrench. This was not standard in my Allen wrench kit. I had to search around through my toolbox and some of my older Allen head wrench sets to find a large enough wrench.
Had to go out and buy a second 7/8” wrench for the oil line swap. An adjustable crescent wrench did not cut it.
Swapping the oil lines (at the filter head) was easier without the filter in place. The forward filter blocked access to the adapter installed in the filter head.
While attempting to loosen the one oil line, the adapter loosened well before the oil line. This is exactly what Jim Fleschner said not to do. It wasn’t intentional, but the oil line fitting did NOT want to budge. Swapping the lines is what caused most of the banged up knuckles and bruises on the wrist. As others have stated, when the lines let loose, it lets loose with a vengeance. BTW, one of the oil lines dripped maybe 1-2 drops of oil, the other one didn’t drip any oil at all. A pleasant surprise.
As I posted in another thread, when I removed each of the old filters, the rubber filter gasket remained in the filter head assembly. I did not notice this until I was attempting to reinstall each new filter (already filled with fresh oil). If I hadn’t noticed and removed the old rubber gaskets, I’m not sure what would have happened.
I used teflon tape on the oil lines, but not the Allen head plug.
I used a cheapie Harbor Freight laser spot thermometer (maybe $15). It seemed to be fairly consistent, though I did not check to see if it was accurate.
Removing the old oil filters resulted in unrecognizable, oil dripping, twisted pieces of metal. Do I just screw them on too tight? Limited access to the area around the filters doesn’t help (Extreme air compressor, transmission cross member, van frame…), but I was cursing up a storm trying to get the old filters off. I tried the chain type oil filter wrench, a plier style oil filter wrench and a strap style oil filter wrench (not necessarily in this order). I had the best luck with the plier style, but it makes a mess of the old filters. Has anyone tried the clamping wrenches that are on Amsoil’s website?
When I removed the oil pan plug, there was some debris on the plug magnet, but it wasn’t too substantial. I took a picture of it and will add it to this post at a later time.
[edit: Photo added. OK, it actually looks really bad when you blow it up this large!]
The Blackstone oil analysis results will be added either to this post or a new post in this thread once I receive it.
[edit: Blackstone oil analysis posted in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2665]
On the way to work this morning, I
think that the MPGs were higher, but I do not track mileage (still got to get to where I'm going). This is anecdotal at best.
Conclusions: A cop-out, but please draw your own conclusions. This was not a scientific experiment. Clearly some combination of the changes I performed resulted in much more flow to the new oil filters, based upon the significantly higher temperatures of the filters themselves (compare the two "Back at home" columns that are
bolded). The oil pan temperature did not change substantially, not that I expected it to change, but I think that can be tied to the residual heat of the first roundtrip along with the slightly higher ambient temperatures. These same factors are “probably” the source of the marginally higher transmission temperatures and maximum coolant temperatures.
Hope this helps,
Herb
Linear Mode
