Sumping Special
The more you know about changing a vehicle’s engine oil, the better off your pride and joy will be.
Changing engine oil is a task every off-roader should be capable of. If your engine oil is contaminated in a deepwater crossing it will help to know how to drain water from the bottom of the sump (let it settle overnight) then top up with some “emergency” oil.
Here are some pre-oil change tips:
Wear safety goggles to prevent eye injury.
Wear mechanics’ gloves. If you don’t wear gloves, take your rings off. There are plenty of live wires in an engine bay and if one shorts out on your ring, it will become red-hot.
Before starting, clean the engine bay, then go for a 30-minute drive – the time it takes for carbon to go back into solution with the oil.
If a workshop is doing the job, clean your vehicle thoroughly. If it’s obvious you care about your rig, chances are the mechanic will be more careful.
Get a few empty oil bottles for waste oil and two clean drain trays. Check your owner’s manual to see how much oil you need.
Lay a plank of ply across the top of the radiator and both batteries to protect the radiator from dropped-tool damage and the batteries from spanner shorts. You can also sit bits and pieces on it.
A mechanics trolley is useful. Have a clean funnel, oil filter, Brakleen, sump plug seal/washer and oil sample bottle handy. You’ll also need a filter-removing tool. The best is the strap-type with a ½-inch drive. Get out your ½-inch drive ratchet and extension for the filter tool, a pocket-knife, a 14mm socket and ratchet, and a rag.
Okay, you’re ready to go. Now just follow the photo captions, from 1 to 10.
Position a drain tray under the filter with the steering linkages in between. Using the filter tool, loosen the filter, then remove it by hand. Gloves are good when you’re worknig with hot filters. Put the filter on the drain holder on your oil drain tray.
Make sure the drip tray is well positioned underneath the imminent oil flow and undo the sump plug. Easy, don’t drop the plug into the oil tray. Carefully swap the drain trays over.
Use the Brakleen to clean the sump plug and its sealing washer. Inspect the sealing surfaces on the plug and sump. They should be clean and smooth without any burrs (raised or peeled steel). The seal washer can be re-used if it’s still in good order. If you’re not 100 percent sure, get a new one. Be careful with the Brakleen, as its propellant will cool the steel down and produce condensation. Carefully wipe the plug down.
Install the drain plug and tighten it up. I class this a critical maintenance operation (CMO). Ignore the phone or anyone who tries to distract you. In other words, don’t stop until that plug is done up nice and tight. Generally speaking, a normal bloke using a standard-length spanner can not exert more torque than the bolt and its thread are capable of taking, if he is using one hand.
Clean the engine block surface where the filter seals.
Read the installation instructions on the oil filter. It will say something like this, “… dribble some fresh oil onto the ‘O’ ring seal of the filter…”
Tighten until ¾ of a turn past the first point of contact between the filter’s seal and the engine. You’re pretty much on the money if you tighten it up as tight as you can with one hand.
Remembering how much engine oil your rig takes, put that much new oil in and not a drop more. Don’t check the dipstick yet because the oil filter hasn’t been filled and they always hold about a litre.
Clear the engine bay of everything (rags etc) and start your engine, idle until oil pressure returns to normal and wait a bit. With engine off, check the dipstick. Over-filled engines pressurise the rear main oil seal, damage the seal and leak oil onto the clutch. Don’t accept a 4×4 from a workshop without checking the oil level. Insist on it being drained to the correct level. Check for leaks after the first short drive.
Please dispose of your waste oil sensibly.
More than sticky stuff
Petrol engines: Synthetics are magic. Not for old engines, but best on new engines after running-in has finished.
Diesel engines: Synthetics glaze cylinder bore holes unless you’re on the throttle hard all the time. Diesels have their own problems with oils.
As the piston goes up and down the oil lubricates it and helps remove some heat. The oil does two important things. First, it creates a friction loss between the cylinder and the piston by literally getting in the way and holding the two metal parts apart. Second, it washes away carbon that the explosion (fuel igniting on top of the piston) forces around the piston rings and down the side of the piston. Carbon is abrasive and must be controlled. A diesel engine makes more carbon than a petrol engine, so it needs more detergent in the oil to get the carbon into solution. Once in solution the carbon is removed by the filter.
The basic criteria for a good diesel oil is its ability to manage a lot of carbon. When the oil is frated from crude oil, it mostly comes out acidic (bad for engines), so more sulphate ash is added to make the oil ph neutral. The more sulphate ash already dissolved into the oil, the less carbon the oil can take into solution. If someone made engine oil from the from the small amount of oil that comes out of the fractionation column ph neutral, the oil would work much more efficiently at absorbing the carbon and generally have a longer life. Provided the other very necessary cocktail of additives lasted and the oil maintained its viscosity (high temperatures will damage the oil and, especially, lower its viscosity) you could extend the oil change intervals. Oil labs can determine if the oil is still healthy, though the oil filter still needs to be changed out at the engine manufacturers intervals.
If the oil sample from my Cruiser comes back indicating the oil is healthy, I will stretch my next oil change interval from 10 000km to 15 000km.
Why? Because it’s saving me money.
Analysing the situation
I have noticed some healthy debate in 4×4 Forum regarding engine oils (see Engine Oil for Patrols, 4×4 Australia, January 2003 and Oils are Oils, February 2003). The only sure way of knowing what CH4 oil is doing to your 3.0-litre turbo-diesel Patrol is to analyse the oil. This will determine if any long-term damage is being done.
Lots of people have their vehicle’s oil analysed. Plant operators do it, truck owners do it – there’s no reason why you can’t use the same technology to check on the condition of your oil and, more importantly, the condition of your engine.
Oil analysis is carried out by specialist labs and is a very good way to determine what’s going on inside your engine. It’s a particularly effective way to determine if dirty air is getting in through the intake system. When I put a K&N air filter on a Jeep Grand Cherokee I once owned, I was concerned the aftermarket filter might not handle the very fine bauxite dust prevalent around my home town of Weipa. To check this I had the engine oil analysed. The findings were moderately high silica (dust) and titanium (bauxite). Neither material is used in the Jeep’s engine.
The lab analyst told me the engine was getting very lightly dusted. I checked all the intake hoses between the air filter and engine but they were spotless. Then I discovered the point of entry; the PCV (pressure control valve) in the rocker cover was wiggling up and down on our corrugated roads and working the dust down past its seal. An easy sealing job with some RVT silicon fixed the problem.
The next oil sample was clean.
There are three easy ways to check the state of your engine oil.
Inspect the drain tray after you’ve tipped the waste oil into the old oil bottles. It should be black and oily, no grit and no discoloration. A milky colour indicates that water is present.
Disassemble the oil filter and inspect the filter element. I use an old wood chisel to cut through the filter’s outer steel shell and my pocket-knife to cut around the fibre filter element. In sunlight, check for anything glittering or gritty looking on the element. Check both sides. A few tiny lumps of glug is okay, it’s just carbon.
Get an oil analysis. The company Oil Check, for example, will send you a kit for about $75 (schedule 3 check).
The kit will include a bottle and very precise instructions on what to do. Read these before starting the oil change. Follow the instructions exactly and give the lab all the information they ask for. This is very important.
The lab will process your sample and send back the results with an explanation of any anomalies.
The oil analysis labs have access to information from the engine and oil manufacturers that indicates what base metals are where in the engine, so they can point you towards a component that might be about to fail before that failure can damage other parts of the engine. They can also determine if your oil is holding up okay.
An oil analysis is a must-do if you are operating your vehicle outside the manufacturer’s planned vehicle usage. Whether it be hot dusty desert conditions or racing in the ARB Warn Outback Challenge, you may need a specialist engine oil.
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