On Sunday, February 8, 2004, at 02:23 PM, Keith Turk wrote:
> I know it's the second worst oil change in history cause you ain't
> told your story yet and I'm the first liar at this dance...
So lemme tell ya about the first time we changed oil on the used
cab-over semi tractor that we bought from the Wal-Mart fleet. Detroit
Diesel 11 liter, 330 HP, 1993 International.
Required supplies: 38 Quarts of Rotella 15W40 and two oil filters --
that'll set the stage.
About 550,000 miles on the engine, although it'd had a major rebuild
about 17,000 before we got it. Wal-Mart fleet service changes oil by
sticking a suck-tube down the filler port, not by removing the drain
plug on the bottom of the pan (which plug, by the way, wants a
half-inch square drive stuck in it, not a hex socket put over it) -- so
the plug hasn't been turned in the more than half-million miles that
the motor has been going down the road. One half-inch ratchet with a
three-foot water pipe/torgue multiplier to the rescue, only one
shattered half-inch drive extension before we got it out.
Did you check to see what is the capacity of the drain pan BEFORE
draining it? We didn't. . . Damn, thirty-eight quarts takes two drain
pans and lotsa spilled oil...
The filters, by the way, are WAY THE HECK up there under the frame
rails, and bigger than the filter wrenches we had handy.
You getting the idea yet???
If memory serves, this is the time when one of the two identical
filters came to us from the Car-Quest store with farkled threads --
which, of course, we didn't find until we had prefilled it with two
quarts, so they wouldn't take it back no matter how loudly we whined.
And they had only had those two units in stock, so wait 'til morning
when their shelf got replenished and they sent one out.
Oh, yeah -- when you put the oil it --- the filler tube is horizontal,
and access is through a little door on the passenger side of the cab --
you open the door, pull the extension out of the filler tube so you can
get to the filler with the cab lowered, and add oil. We had the cab
tilted (by the way, don't forget to see if the overall height of the
cab as it swings through it's radius when tilting exceeds the ceiling
height ... lower the cab back down, then move the truck a little bit so
the cab fits between the ceiling joists). We pulled the extension out
and filled the crankcase.
Okay, most of the games are done, so lower the cab and ...S**T! --
Shoulda pushed that filler tube extension back into the tube, 'cause
now we've got a bent extension that won't go back in, won't let the cab
lower down. It's still got a crimp it it, but it doesn't leak...
Finally done...but let's change the other filters - transmission,
differential, fuel primary, fuel secondary, coolant. Bless us, no
troubles there -- but a severely dented maintenance budget and hurt
feelings -- and a good story to tell.
Thanks for bringing up the subject, Keith.
Jon Wennerberg
Seldom Seen Slim Land Speed Racing
Marquette, Michigan
(that's 'way up north)
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