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Changing Horizontal Oil Filters

Berthon-9-09-163

Engineers who put horizontal oil filters on diesels should condemned to changing these several hundred times, and cleaning up afterwards. If this were the case, they’d figure out how to install these vertically.

So, if you have a Northern Lights genset, as we do, with a horizontal oil filter, the one trick we’ve learned is to poke holes into the filter to partially drain it before removal. This still leaves a mess, just not as big as occurs with a filter full of oil.


Posted by Steve Dashew  (October 5, 2009)

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Dashew Logs. Both comments and pings are currently closed.




5 Responses to “Changing Horizontal Oil Filters”

  1. Scott Evangelista Says:
    October 7th, 2009 at 4:59 pm

    Steve,

    I have a hoizontal finlter on a kubota driven generator and and have had great luck using a zip-lock bag. First I lossen the filter a bit and then I slide the bag all the way up, snug against the filter mount. Then I can twist the filter through the bag. As soon as filter is free, I seal the bag and slide upright into the old filter box…not necessary but it keeps everything stable. Incidentally, the same process works on the upright filter on my main engine.

    Best,

    Scott


  2. Steve Dashew Says:
    October 7th, 2009 at 7:04 pm

    Thanks Scott:
    I use the baggy approach on the big diesels, but the oil filter on the genset does not have space to get the baggy secured.


  3. David Snow Says:
    October 8th, 2009 at 7:03 pm

    I have used the “baggy approach” for years. I was first shown it on those nasty three-part secondary fuel filters. It does however, work great on vertical oil filters.

    I agree designers who install horizontal oil filters should be sentenced to 90 days of having to replace them ;=}


  4. Ryan Says:
    October 15th, 2009 at 8:17 am

    Any reason (other than the million other little projects) that you don’t use a remote oil filter adapter kit? You can mount the filter anywhere you want… such as high enough to put a bucket or tray under it. These are popular in auto racing where it’s not convenient to have the filter on the block due to the pan diaper or other conflicting items.

    Maybe your genset has to fit in a sound box or something that prohibits this.


  5. Steve Dashew Says:
    October 15th, 2009 at 5:57 pm

    Ryan:
    We could do this, but the hose run is messy so we just live with the poor installation we have now.