Dumb Oil Change Questions???

[smokingun45]

^^^^^ ALWAYS use an open top drain pan or you will be sorry!

I always drain oil after returning from a normal trip. Oil will be hot, but with a little practice you can pull the drain plug without getting burned ( or dropping it in the drain pan :-D). A shop rag helps with this.
Let it drain for 45 minutes or so while engine and oil filter cool down. Remove old oil filter and gasket!!, always prefill new filter if possible (vertical mount) install drain plug and fill with 3 gallons of high quality diesel spec oil.

This has worked for me with the last four Dodge HD diesel trucks with about 500K miles.

All my vehicles are currently 5.9L Cummins diesel trucks.

 

[Harley Anderson]

As Tiredtrucker mentioned, a fumoto drain valve makes a huge difference in oil changes. You can drain hot into 1 gallon jugs, ready for disposal. The oil filter can wait while the engine cools.

 

[bullwinkle]

The only danger of prefilling the filter is ANYTHING that finds it's way into the middle of the filter goes straight into the oil galleries-and the piston oil squirters. If you're careful, you'll be fine-but there is a risk there. I personally stopped prefilling & crank with no grid heater action (don't wait for the light to go out) a couple times to get oil in the filter, then start it (on the diesels).

 

[Branson304]

I idle the engine about 10 minutes & then drain the oil. I've also drained oil right after driving long distances, it's just hot & you have to be careful.

I don't think it's a bad idea to fill the new filter. I sometimes fill filters completely up, sometimes I just put a little oil inside for the media to soak up. The vehicle regains oil pressure much quicker when the filter is pre-filled. Always remember to oil the gasket of the new filter too.