Technical oil filters fill or install dry?

Who fills their oil filter when changing oil ?
Is it harm full to fill ? Some say yes.
I've always filled part way and lube the gasket with it.

 

Don't see why it would hurt. Its full when you pull it off.

 

I fill mine, when I remember to.

 

As long as you include the oil in the new filter as part of the total amount required.

 

I fill them if I can....depends on the car, some are kind of difficult!

 

Some modern off topic cars now require it as with the modern technology the oil pump needs the filter full.
The stuff I have thus far hasn’t required it, which is just as well since I usually manage to drop the empty filter at least twice whilst trying to install it from underneath - imagine the mess………

 

My 2 OT mount horizontal on the engine and the Y-Block is on a 45* angle. I put some in every one.

 

I add to filter, helps get oil flow quicker.
Dan

 

As long as the filter doesn't mount horizontal or upside down like on some cars that came here on a boat I always put as much oil in the filter as I can. Less work for the pump plus I've discovered that some of the filters I've bought were defective that way(basically when I poured some in it didn't bubble down). Don't know how it could be harmful

 

I was taught to at least partially fill the filter in my Auto Information classes in the early 70's.

 

Since 1969, makes NO sense NOT to fill the filter can.
Even if the filter lays down, I always put...some oil in.

MUCH better than the time it takes the oil pump to fill the filter, and get the system working again.

Mike

 

I always fill and lube the seal regardless of the orientation.

 

Fill em up, screw em on! What can it hurt?

 

It's just too hard to imagine the workings of a mind ...?
that would not want oil flowing at the start-up.

The engine needs oil. We prime on a rebuild.
You gonna say that an engine with thousands of miles of wear, wont mind running dry??
Even a sidewinder, or invert gets filled by me. Whatever gravity takes out I'll clean up after.
3 quick rules
First release / raise hood
At finish, start motor, look under for leak. Shut down.
Last pull wiped dipstick to be certain of level.

 

When the filter is mounted on the motor in a position where it may actually hold the oil in it, I suppose it would be OK.
I'm a Mopar guy, not many filters would hold much more then about a 1/3 of the filter full of oil and would cause an awful mess trying to prefill the filter. most of the oil in the filter drains back down into the oil pan when the motor is shut off. It takes the oil pump less then 10 seconds to pressurize the entire system. Unless the motor has been sitting for a very long time, I just don't see those few seconds being a long term issue (the parts inside of the motor still have oil on the surfaces), but if you think it makes a difference, you go for it.
I've put well over 200,000 miles on some of theses non-oil holding filtered motors without oil related problems, and have changed oil on many customer's vehicles over the last 50 years and have never seen a problem with not prefilling the oil filters. Actually seeing how many people over the years run their motors without any oil in them and get by with it several times, I think I'm going to concern myself with things that really matter. I'll take my chances with starting the motor with an empty filter for 10 seconds every few thousand miles, when it gets an oil filter replaced.

For the guy above, there is a pretty big difference between priming a motor that has never had oil in it and a motor that has been ran with oil for many thousands of miles that just lacks the oil in the filter for a few seconds after an oil change.

 

Most filters have a non return valve so retain most of their oil even if they are inverted. So no reason not to pre fill. This is to stop the filter draining down and delay lubrication at start up.

10 seconds of running with no oil pressure is over 100 crank revolutions under idle loads and cylinder pressure.

Your choice.

 

It can't hurt to fill the filter, but I go this.

"For the guy above, there is a pretty big difference between priming a motor that has never had oil in it and a motor that has been ran with oil for many thousands of miles that just lacks the oil in the filter for a few seconds after an oil change."

 

This is the guy above. You say 'awful' mess. ? It's only oil on the floor.
If it is a customer you don't care for, sure, do what pleases you.
Me I hate the sound of rattling crankshafts.
As a kid I was forced to drive an old Dodge that was falling apart, the only thing I could afford.
I shiver when exposed to that noise.
Going to work every morning wondering if today is the day it's gonna break.

 

And if you've taken apart engines that have sat for decades, and had oil run out of the bearings as you do so, you'll think even in this case it's not necessary!

But it's still a good idea to give an engine all the oil you can...

 

Oh, hell, lets start the debate about these..

 

I had a bad experience in a construction zone. concrete barriers, so I had no where to go but over a truck wheel and tire dropped in the road. Took off my oil filter and instantly pumped out all the oil. I had nowhere to pull over for 3/4 of a mile ( at 60 mph). I was shocked when the insurance company refused to replace the engine. After consulting mechanics and engineers, I gave up the fight with insurance and just drove it. I had no issues. It ran fine for a couple years. 30k miles. I do fill my filters, but I have no heartburn if I forget.

 

A little story just a couple of weeks old on this.

I changed the oil on the 57 Chevy 210. This car has never been apart and still runs well and oil light all ways go out right after start up. How ever like any vehicle after an oil change it takes a while for oil pressure to resume. This is when things got scary after this oil change. It took a long time for that big ass oil canister to fill up and the bottom end didn’t like it. I hate to do it but it’s getting an oil filter adapter on its next change. That way I’ll be able to fill the oil filter first as I always do with any spin on.

 

I fill most of mine .
I also crank it with the coil wire off a few spins to bring up the oil pressure before starting it . I doubt its necessary but It cant hurt .

 

Did you ever wonder what the he** they were thinking when they came up with that ? The ones coming out the side of an engine are messy enough.

 

I fill up the canister with oil, it doesn't seem to leak out around the bolt head. I've gone back to canisters on the two 60s engines I have, it's just so fun to relive the old days!

But it's really a trick on the Rambler. That's a bypass filter! not full flow. The holes in it are tiny. Easy to change without much spill.

 

There's some Aussie 318s with the filter like that, but in the back...

 

When you prefill filters, do you take care to only fill oil into the entrance of the filter, not the exit? Otherwise the oil that goes in the "wrong way" will continue into the engine unfiltered.

Don't know how much it can matter or how clean we can count on the new oil to be out of the bottle, but it's a main argument against prefilling diesel filters - diesel pumps being very sensitive to contamination and the risk of bringing dirt into the fuel system with the prefill fuel.

 

I did leave out the part of dropping the hot canister. It made a big splash. Need I say more?

 

I was an engine development engineer. Our service procedures ALWAYS called for installing engine oil filters dry. I started working in the engine lab in the early seventies and that’s what the process was then, and it was still that way when I retired a few decades later.

Our engines (Diesels, and before that, gasoline) went in agricultural, industrial, construction and truck applications. It was long established that promoting pre filling the filter with oil led to getting dirt on the clean side of the filter. The volume of oil in the filter doesn’t lead to any significant delay in building oil pressure, either, which was proved with calculations and verified with instrumentation on running engines every few years when a new crop of engineers came on board. Certainly not delay enough to do damage considering how a hydrodynamic pressure wedge works and understanding the tribology of lubrication.

Having said that, old habits die hard, and I doubt our recommendation swayed the opinions of many self educated mechanics.