i have a yanmar 3gm30f that replaced a volvo. i just bought the boat
and she ids due for her first oil change at my hands. my prior boats
have had outboards. my question- how does one change the oil without
making a horrid mess? there does not seem to be a spot to slip a basin
under the engine. the is room for one on the tranny. do people use
those pumps that are in the west catalog? do they get all the oil out?
i do not want to leave any old oil in. i had thought about just
draining it into the drip pan then mopping it up, but that seems like a
poor way to go about it.
thanks for advice
john churchill
bcc#65 BUCEPHALUS
John
Our earlier boat (an m/v) had a Volvo engine. Volvo supplied a brass
oil-change hand pump with the engine. It worked fine - I used it when the oil
was hot, so I needed to wear work gloves because the pump soon reached
temperature equilibrium with the oil.
A number of retail oil-change hand pumps are made from plastic and come with
warnings to use when the oil is warm, not hot. I prefer changing the oil when
hot, so I recommend a metal pump. And work gloves. West Marine (and other
retailers) market large vacuum pumps, but I’ve not used them, so I cannot
comment. I would suggest resisting any temptation to use the sort of pump that
is driven by an electric drill; they seem pretty flimsy and present lots of
chances for spraying black oil everywhere.
Do pumps inserted through the dipstick tube get ‘all’ the oil? No.
Is it possible to get ‘all’ of the oil? Probably not, even when draining
through the sump plug (a film of oil remains on internal components - removing
it would mean that bearings etc would be running dry initially. Over time that
film, or some of its components, evaporates of course).
Does not changing all the oil matter? Probably not - you might remove more
contaminants by dropping the oil through the drain plug in the sump, but the
degree of continued contamination from change to change when using a pump may
not be critical.
Many (most?) big diesels in service as generator sets and propulsion engines
(both terrestrial and marine) have their oil changed with pumps instead of by
gravity feed through a drain plug in the sump. Many big diesels sets have
standard operating procedures that include ‘purifying’ oil, instead of
changing it, and regular sampling for spectroscopic analysis. Sampling allows
problems (such as metal particles, fuel contamination etc) to be detected.
Small high-speed diesel sets, such as the Yanmar 3GM30F, follow the automobile
practice of oil changing as a cheap procedure (ie cheaper than installing
pumps to drain the sump and cheaper than sampling and purifying oil, but of
course more profitable to the lubricating-oil companies).
It’s worth noting that lubricating oil for diesel sets has become quite
sophisticated over the past 30 years or so, with additives to disperse carbon
particles, additives to resist foaming, additives to counter acidity,
additives to resist oxidation, etc. It’s also worth noting that not a few
people hold the opinion that oil changes, especially with the current crop of
synthetic oils, are not as important as auto owners are led to believe
(although changing oil filters may be v important) by oil companies.
If you are v keen, you can perform the contortions to remove the drain plug
after pumping the sump as dry as possible. It gives an easy way of checking
how much oil is left after pumping and lets you see if any particulate debris
is in the sump. I think I only did it once - enough to convince me that
pumping is the cheap, if not ideal, solution.
Cheers
Bil (BCC116)
Makati MM, Philippines
http://www2.mozcom.com/~w_hansen/
Unless your Yanmar has been “customized” to receive a drain plug, the only
way to get the oil out is to pump it out of the sump thru the dip stick hole.
Make sure oil is warm since it makes the pumping easier and, if you want, you
could change it once run the motor a bit and change it again. That would
almost assure you most of the old oil out of it.
Alain
John,
I also have a 3GM30F; I use a vacuum pump system. I purchased it from a
boating store. It has a 2 gallon domed can unto which you attach a hand
vacuum pump and a separate
suction line. You pump the hand pump to establish a vacuum on the can,
insert the suction hose
into the oil dipstick hole in the side of the engine and release the clamp
on the suction hose. You may
have to pump the vacuum up a couple of time during the process but it works
well.
I installed an 18-inch section of copper tubing to the end of my suction
hose
so that I can assure that it is getting to the bottom of the engine pan. BE
SURE THE OIL IS AT ENGINE OPERATING TEMPERATURE
before you start.
Be sure to change the filter every time you change the oil. This is cheap
insurance that will help
in extending your engine life. Also be sure to use a good 40-wt. oil
formulated for diesels.
Steve Osborne
----- Original Message -----
From: “John Churchill” <jchurchill@erols.com >
To: <bcc@eGroups.com >
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 1999 8:45 PM
Subject: [bcc] oil change
i have a yanmar 3gm30f that replaced a volvo. i just bought the boat
and she ids due for her first oil change at my hands. my prior boats
have had outboards. my question- how does one change the oil without
making a horrid mess? there does not seem to be a spot to slip a basin
under the engine. the is room for one on the tranny. do people use
those pumps that are in the west catalog? do they get all the oil out?
i do not want to leave any old oil in. i had thought about just
draining it into the drip pan then mopping it up, but that seems like a
poor way to go about it.
thanks for advice
john churchill
bcc#65 BUCEPHALUS
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