Interesting new oil change product

How much oil does the cooler hold?

Also, what’s the point of blowing out the filter? It would drain by itself and it should be cut anyway to check the element for metal..
 
Why would you want to empty your oil galleys? Seems like it makes bigger problems that’s the one it solves.
 
Salty said:
Why would you want to empty your oil galleys? Seems like it makes bigger problems that’s the one it solves.
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My feeling as well.

For those that want to do it, I've seen a few guys pierce the can with a center punch and use a rubber tipped blow gun.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
How much oil does the cooler hold?

Also, what’s the point of blowing out the filter? It would drain by itself and it should be cut anyway to check the element for metal..
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No idea how much is in the cooler, but the oil filter will NOT drain by itself. I've tried leaving it overnight, punching a hole in the top etc.. always holds a ton of oil. I end up using a trash bag to catch the oil.

This is an intriguing idea, I'd love to hear from someone with actual experience using it.
 
My coolers and lines hold 2 quarts. I’m hoping I can purge them with this gadget. And the poke a hole thing takes forever to drain. I’m all for supercharging it. I ordered one last night. It shipped a couple of hours ago.
 
Draining your oil galleys means running your engine with no oil when you restart. No thanks.
 
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Hang 4 said:
No idea how much is in the cooler, but the oil filter will NOT drain by itself. I've tried leaving it overnight, punching a hole in the top etc.. always holds a ton of oil. I end up using a trash bag to catch the oil.
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What engine?

On my IO550, I punch a hole in the top of the filter, rotate the prop backwards 3 revolutions. Got that tip from a Continental engineer. Works like a champ.
 
Salty said:
Draining your oil galleys means running your engine with no oil when you restart. Draining the cooler means it’ll run even longer before your engine is lubricated again. No thanks.
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That is my concern as well. I'd rather have 1 or 2% of the old engine oil remain than have a dry start every time I do an oil change. I suppose you could pull plugs and crank the engine to re-prime, but that is a lot of extra effort. Unlike the inventor in the video, I never see darkening of the fresh oil after the first few flights - in fact it is nearly impossible to see the oil level on the dipstick in the subdued light of my hangar for a while after an oil change.

My method for preventing oil spills on my Lycoming IO-360 is placing a cut plastic quart oil bottle under where the filter meets the adapter. It holds about 1/3 quart, which is enough to catch everything that comes out of my filter.
 
There’s potentially so much wrong with this product.
Beyond @Salty point about dry restarts:
  • How would anyone trust any reading of the oil filter media for particle analysis?
  • Wouldn’t take a lot of pressure to tear media and blow crud back into the engine
  • If hole of made with a drill, shavings are added to filter, if punched for a hole that large the media would likely be pierced
 
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Other than hammering it in I don't see a problem with it. Let us know how it works!
 
No different than piercing a filter can to gravity drain it, which doesn’t work. I like the idea of blowing out my coolers. I don’t know if it’ll work but I’m willing to try it.

To listen to these guys it’s a wonder new engines don’t seize upon startup. And WTF is an oil galley?
 
Stewartb said:
To listen to these guys it’s a wonder new engines don’t seize upon startup.
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Well, it is a good idea to preoil the engine prior to first start...

Stewartb said:
And WTF is an oil galley?
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Some people call them galleys others call them galleries. Either way, its the passages that deliver oil to points (such as bearings) within the engine. What do you know them as?

The guy's video on the anti splat website even says it will blow out the oil passages. They claim it is an advantage, I don't see it that way. Will it damage an engine? Hard to say but probably not.
 
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that if this is such a great product, someone, anyone, at Lycoming, Continental or one of the oil filter companies would have thought of it decades ago.
 
I’m humbled by your wisdom about something you have zero experience with.
 
Stewartb said:
No different than piercing a filter can to gravity drain it, which doesn’t work.
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Yeah, I haven't tried that either...

Stewartb said:
I like the idea of blowing out my coolers. I don’t know if it’ll work but I’m willing to try it.
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Absolutely, worth a try, especially if it will blow 2 qts of dirty oil out. My cooler holds about a pint. Not sure about the lines but definitely less than a qt overall. I don't even bother draining it anymore...

Stewartb said:
To listen to these guys it’s a wonder new engines don’t seize upon startup.
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Yeah, I don't see an issue there, I would think oil vacates the galleries after shutdown anyway and there will still be a film to lubricate regardless. I can't speak to anything other than the O-360 in my C172, but it is a PITA to keep oil from making a mess when removing the oil filter so I can see the value in that aspect alone...
 
Oil isn’t going to drain out of the galleries normally. Especially the ones feeding your bearings. You’d have to apply pressure to them to force the oil out. This is a really bad idea.
 
I'm sorry - not banging, essentially, an oversized nail into my oil filter, potentially making a small metal fragment, and then blowing it with compressed air into the oil system.

You can do it if you like.
 
I was wondering how long it takes the oil pump to prime after an oil change? Also how fast do you need spin the prop/engine for the pump to prime? Is it better to hand prop the engine after an oil change for a bit or just start the engine?

I'm always working by myself and can't view the oil pressure gauge when I hand prop the engine to see if there is a rise or indication of oil pressure.
 
AKBill said:
I was wondering how long it takes the oil pump to prime after an oil change? Also how fast do you need spin the prop/engine for the pump to prime? Is it better to hand prop the engine after an oil change for a bit or just start the engine?

I'm always working by myself and can't view the oil pressure gauge when I hand prop the engine to see if there is a rise or indication of oil pressure.
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When I spun up my engine the first time after overhaul I did it with just the starter and it was able to get the oil pressure up a bit. Took a little spinning at maybe 400 rpm, maybe for 5-10 seconds. Based on that I wouldn’t think hand propping would do much.
 
AKBill said:
... how long it takes the oil pump to prime after an oil change? Also how fast do you need spin the prop/engine for the pump to prime? Is it better to hand prop the engine after an oil change for a bit or just start the engine?

I'm always working by myself and can't view the oil pressure gauge when I hand prop the engine to see if there is a rise or indication of oil pressure.
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Hand propping horizontally opposed air cooled engine will do more damage than help.

This is an old wives tale held over from the radial engine days when pooled oil needed to be redistributed. Hand propping a horizontally opposed aircraft engine does not pump any oil to the galleries and only scrapes oil that may remain from the cylinder walls. It’s actually delivers the opposite result desired.

The oil pump will never make enough vacuum to suck oil from the pan to redistribute.
 
NordicDave said:
Hand propping horizontally opposed air cooled engine will do more damage than help.

This is an old wives tale held over from the radial engine days when pooled oil needed to be redistributed. Hand propping a horizontally opposed aircraft engine does not pump any oil to the galleries and only scrapes oil that may remain from the cylinder walls. It’s actually delivers the opposite result desired.

The oil pump will never make enough vacuum to suck oil from the pan to redistribute.
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Hand-propping will move the oil, just not very well at all. The gears in the oil pump are close-fitting, but they rely on some RPM to move volume, and at handprop speeds you won't get a lot. You WILL get some; just talk to the mechanic that has drained every lifter in an engine and has put the pushrod tubes back together and the pushrods in, ready for the dry tappet valve clearance checks, only to turn that prop forward and have the pump refill the lifters and completely defeat the whole process. BTDT. Grrr.
 
My fear would be the engine turning on restart with a longer period of time with no oil pressure while all those areas are refilling with oil.
 
MBDiagMan said:
My fear would be the engine turning on restart with a longer period of time with no oil pressure while all those areas are refilling with oil.
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Yes, the pressure would be a little slower coming up, but perspective is needed here: that nice new totally empty oil filter has a lot more volume in it than the oil galleries, and we only wait a few seconds for it to fill. The residual oil on the bearings and cylinder walls is enough as long as you're not loading the engine by going to 2000 RPM on startup.

And that makes another point: the small amount of dirty oil in the galleries is hardly worth blowing out. The galleries are about 7/16" diameter and run down each side of the engine, the length of the crankcase. Much smaller galleries tap off them to the main and cam bearings, and the lifter bores intersect them. Not much volume at all. Even an oil cooler doesn't carry much oil, though Cessna recommended draining it on their 172s and had a teed hose fitting with a cap on it for that. The dumb thing was that the cooler's inlet and outlet were halfway up the cooler so that the bottom half wouldn't drain. I imagine that's why they wanted the cooler off for a thorough internal cleaning every 500 hours, to get the accumulated sludge out of it. I once encountered one that refused to be cleaned out; the new engine wanted to overheat its oil until I replaced that cooler. No amount of cleaning would get it opened up. I suspect it had sludged up its lower half and varnished up the rest.
 
If you have a dry-sump engine, hand propping can move the oil into the oil tank so the contents can be measured more accurately. Like in a Rotax. On a Rotax, if one breaks the oil line there is a danger of introducing air into the hydraulic lifters, so Rotax has a procedure to follow if the oil system is opened more than for changing the filter. I'm only suggesting different engine may have different reactions to having the lines blown out with air.
 
Salty said:
Oil isn’t going to drain out of the galleries normally. Especially the ones feeding your bearings. You’d have to apply pressure to them to force the oil out. This is a really bad idea.
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Have you disassembled an airplane engine? Where did you find anything more than oil clinging to surfaces?

Oil filters have anti-backflow valves so blowing pressure would move oil from the dirty side to the clean return side. No dirty oil would go back into the engine.

Dan’s comments about filling the filter are correct. That’s the first place oil goes after the oil pump on a Lycoming. It doesn’t take very long.
 
I don't have anything specific to say about this particular product, but I have purchased numerous products from Alan for my RV-6A. There are some that are still on my list as well.
 
My IA uses this technique but he just punches a small hole in the top of the oil filter and blows the oil out with the oil drain opened.
 
Stewartb said:
Have you disassembled an airplane engine?
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yes I have.

This is my case a day after I split it. Look at all the oil on and around the bearings even still.
2017-11-10 16.20.43.JPG 2017-11-10 16.20.57.JPG
Where did you find anything more than oil clinging to surfaces?
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that’s the point. Blow air in it and it’s not even clinging to the surface anymore. Unless you blow air into them, the oil is pretty much stuck in the galleries, particularly around the bearings.
 
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I doubt the volume and duration of air needed will dry any bearings. I’m looking forward to trying it.
 
None for me ... no thank you.
 
Stewartb said:
Dan’s comments about filling the filter are correct. That’s the first place oil goes after the oil pump on a Lycoming. It doesn’t take very long.
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It goes through the oil cooler first when the oil is warm.
 
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