UPS arrived the other day with a box from Moss so I spent Sunday
afternoon working under the hood: New radiator cap, valve cover
gasket and a spin on filter adapter. Oil changes will be a breeze now
but I have some advice and a question.
The adapter comes with 3 rubber O-rings: 1 is the large one to replace
the ring that sealed the old canister; and 2 smaller ones to take the
place of the seal on the old filter element. One of the smaller rings is
thick and the other thin. The instruction sheet (don't lose it, it is a tiny
piece of paper!) says to fit the thinner ring and place a small piece of
the included plasticene over a portion of the ring. Install the adapter and
tigthen it up. Now, remove the adapter and check to see if the
plasticene was squeezed enough to show that the O-ring made contact
with the mating surface on the engine. If not, the instructions say to use
the thicker ring.
Well, it didn't appear to me that the ring was making good contact so
I installed the adapter with the thicker ring. Underneath the car, I moved
my drip pan out of the way and spun on the filter. Start the engine.
Good oil pressure. Hmmm - a black line where the adapter and
engine meet. Yup, it is oil. Check underneath. QUICK! Get the drip
pan back in place - oil is RUNNING out. Engine off.
The bolt is tight so that can't be it. Remove the adapter and check the
rings. All in place so that's not it. The only thing I could figure is that I
misread the plasticene test and the thick inner O-ring was preventing
a good seal with the large outer ring. I re-installed the adapter with the
thin ring and everything seems fine.
So, check that test fit carefully. If you blindly use the thin ring and it
doesn't make good contact then oil will leak through the ring instead of
being passed through the filter.
The filter from Moss (Fram PH3600) is long enough that the clutch
slave cylinder is in the way and you can't get the filter on. My solution
was to loosen the adapter and rotate it a bit clockwise. This angles
it enough so the filter clears the slave cylinder.
About getting that @#$% filter cannister out... The handbook reprint
in the Bently shop manual has a picture showing the cannister being
removed. Ha! The engine had to be mounted on a stand for that
photo!
On my 6, there is barely enough room to force it between the steering
column and the wheel well. Unfortunately there is a brake line smack
dab in the way and it doesn't give enough to make room. There is
a junction bolted to the inner fender that looks like an H with brake
lines coming off all 4 ends. I removed the bolt which allowed enough
play in the brake lines to squeeze the cannister out, then replaced the bolt.
Questions -
Does replacing the cannister with the adapter and spin on
filter change the amount of oil that should be in the engine? Should I
still add oil according to the marks on the dip stick?
God knows when the oil was last changed. I plan to run for a few days
and then change the oil and the filter. I will then stick to a 3000 miles or
3 months oil and filter change schedule. Good plan?
Should I use some kind of cleaning or flushing agent with any oil
changes?
With the engine warm and idling, the dash oil pressure gauge shows
about 60 psi. Is that a good number? Is the gauge telling the truth?
Hope my adapter story helps someone, and thanks in advance for
your answers to my questions.
Tom Lund
tlund@ilhawaii.net
72 TR-6 #CC82058U
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