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How do you wash and oil filter?

lndwarrior

Well Known Member
I've seen a few posts lately about people washing and drying oil filter and and checking from metal. How exactly do you wash and dry an oil filter?
 
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I suspect that you are referring to the process used to cut open and inspect an oil filter's internal filtering media as part of an oil change. Remove the used oil filter, cut it open using an appropriate tool, remove and inspect the internal filtering media and then rinse the media's contents into a clean white container using gasoline or a suitable solvent. A magnet can be used to separate and detect any steel particles. Crushable black carbon deposits (aka "coffee grounds") are occasionally found. Engine manufacturers typically specify the amount and type of metal that is acceptable and how to proceed if metal is detected. The internet contains considerable information regarding this process and the metals that may be encountered.
 
I suspect that you are referring to the process used to cut open and inspect an oil filter's internal filtering media as part of an oil change. Remove the used oil filter, cut it open using an appropriate tool, remove and inspect the internal filtering media and then rinse the media's contents into a clean white container using gasoline or a suitable solvent. A magnet can be used to separate and detect any steel particles. Crushable black carbon deposits (aka "coffee grounds") are occasionally found. Engine manufacturers typically specify the amount and type of metal that is acceptable and how to proceed if metal is detected. The internet contains considerable information regarding this process and the metals that may be encountered.

OK, thanks! "Solvent in a bucket" was what I was looking for. Feel kind of stupid now that I know the answer... :)
 
Another way is to cut the length of pleats in thirds and squeeze each stack in the vise catching the oil underneath with a rag or paper towel. I have gotten the filter media so dry that I wrote the date on the media with a felt tip pen. Makes it really easy to open and inspect the folds with a magnifying glass without using any solvents.
 
Just noticed all three posts above are from Sonoma County CA, where flying is only good 12 months out of the year......:D
 
Just noticed all three posts above are from Sonoma County CA, where flying is only good 12 months out of the year......:D


'cept for the Fog. It is "god's country" though and I miss it. Someone needs to resurrect the runway/airport in Pope Valley. That's a really special place too!
 
Love Santa Rosa! Dropped in there a few times in search of the perfect grape juice!
Hope you all were unscathed in that last deluge!
 
Regardless of technique, pass a magnet through the pleats, and through your rinse solution, if you decide to flush the media. The type of metal I was finding in my high time 0320 was so small you could not see it, especially against the carbon. The metal was smaller than grains of sand.
I put a zip lock bag over an inspection magnet, tight, so the particles do not stay on the magnet. This way I could get an accurate measurement of the particle ?pile?.
On rebuild, one of the cam lobes wasn?t much of a lobe anymore but it never made any metal other than what looked like a fine powder.
 
?.I put a zip lock bag over an inspection magnet, tight, so the particles do not stay on the magnet. This way I could get an accurate measurement of the particle ?pile?.....

Dang, what a good idea. I hate it when those little bits of carbon/metal get stuck down in the cracks of the magnet! Thank you!
 
Dang, what a good idea. I hate it when those little bits of carbon/metal get stuck down in the cracks of the magnet! Thank you!

Welcome. However, I have no original ideas. Can?t remember which long time Mechanic showed me....
 
Lots of ways to do it.

For me the leave it in place is better than the wash method.

When I first got my assignment in the engine lab (110 test cells) I watched the guy do this for 5-10 filters a day. He would cut the can open, circle cut the pleats off and lay that accordion on a layer of (many layers) of paper towels. Inlet side up (outside) of the filter paper. Then, saturate (once) the filter with mineral spirits, (stoddard solvent) and sit a piece of 1/2" x 4" x 8" steel bar on top to hold it to the paper below.

I do this in a rectangular baking pan, and then leave it for a couple of days. An initial visual inspection for gross issues is good enough to return the engine to service, but the filter element will be dry as a bone in 2-3 days. It does take a lot of paper towels though. ;)

After final inspection, I wrap them in aluminum foil mark hrs etc and then store in an old checkbook box. JIC. The oil analysis report comes in 4 days so all is confirmed pretty quickly.
 
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