ford 4.6 owners, changing oil, starting engine

[bill64]

what do other members do? my 03 crown vic likes to start at around 1100 rpm then tapers down to idle. when changing my oil i pre soak the filter but due to its mounting position alot of the oil spills out anyway. so when starting i hold throttle wide open to cut off fuel and crank engine for about 20 seconds, let starter rest and i do that a two or three times. i know im adding wear to the starter but does anyone just fire it up?? (makes alot of noise!) id rather wear the starter then hammer the bearings! just looking for opinions

 

[mr_happy27]

idle is normal. Don't fill your oil filter all the way up if it's going to leak out when you mount it on..try just a bit to get the media soaked & i wouldn't recommend that starter trick you are doing.

 

[johnd]

I'm not that compulsive but I have known several people who pull the coil wire (could just as easily be ingniton fuse, fuel pump fuse, whatever so that the car cranks and doesn't start) and cranked it until the oil light went out. If you have noise on startup this will eliminate it and the few extra revs on the starter doesn't hurt anything. We did this on my son's VW bug when we put the new engine on it and started it for the first time.

 

[Buick92]

Just change the oil like you do any other car, pulling the coil wire??? This is why this site sometimes scares me.

 

[glennc]

You could rig a switch to the cockpit to cut the ignition until the oil light goes off on EVERY start, and probably save a tiny bit of engine wear.

Then again I think one of the lessons of this site, especially the used oil analysis section, is that these things just don't matter. The oils are so good these days the engine is fully protected even during the extended time it can take to pump to the top end on a below-zero start. Somebody here recently documented that time at well over thirty seconds on a Nissan VQ35 engine, and that engine puts out excellent wear numbers.

- Glenn

 

[Dark Jedi]

I owuld only think you would need to prime a engine if it was beand new and had no oil in it what so ever. when you change the oil. you never get all the oil out of it. so I would think the parts are oiled enough and wont harm anything untill the new oil gets pumped in everywhere. I maybe wrong but its what I think and I never had a prob. after all running the engine or turning it over with the fuel pump fuse or coil wire. all the same parts move no matter what. I wouldnt worry about it. I know its scary watching the oil pressure needle reading 0 for a few sec. but whould have enough oil in there not to cause any harm in there.


if I am totally wrong I am sorry.

 

[Al]

Don't worry about it. IMHO its not a big deal.

I had an 88 Ranger that had the filter mounted horizontally and the fiters I used for the first 50K miles had no ADB valve. It sounded like a thrashing machine for all those years. Then later the screen on the oil pump got clogged and my son operated it for months (at school).

It sounded like a thrashing machine for a couple of minutes each time it started.

At 150K it was still on the road. See, there is no load on the bearing during this starting.

 

[Ray H]

Brand new engines are "primed" with molybdenum-rich assembly lube that was liberally slathered on every moving part that didn't duck in time during build. The antiwear ingredients, in whatever form a particular motor oil blender uses, that cling to metal after shutdown and drain, will protect sufficiently during the 10 seconds or less that it takes for oil pressure to build at startup after an oil change. Brief initial noise is not neither proof nor indicative that metal-grinding wear is taking place. This whole BITOG debate about "oil starvation wear at initial startup after an oil change" is just one more baseless obsession. Like any obsession, it's best left to board-certified psychiatrists than armchair tribologists with an internet connection and too much time on their hands.

[ December 26, 2005, 07:11 PM: Message edited by: Ray H ]

 

[wavinwayne]

On our '97 Expedition, sometimes I pre-fill the filter, sometimes I don't. Then I crank her up. It takes approx. 3-4 seconds for the oil pressure light to turn off. Pre-filling the filter makes no difference in the amount of time it takes for the light to go off in the Expy.

I don't think it really makes any difference if the oil filter is pre-filled or not. Unless you drain the oil & leave the vehicle sitting for a few days, there will still be a film of oil on the internal engine parts. So, a couple of seconds without significant oil pressure isn't going to hurt anything, IMO.

 

[bruce381]

"Like any obsession, it's best left to board-certified psychiatrists than armchair tribologists with an internet connection and too much time on their hands."

discribes this site.

bruce

 

[97f150]

I usually just wet the media and crank the engine. Takes about a nanosecond for the pressure to go up, never thought much about it actually.

 

[black thunder]

in my 4.6 powered T-bird i don't worry about it.

if it does make some noise its only for about a second or so.

 

[Mud]

What Ray said.

Just start it up and RELAX.

My 4.6 '95 CV does just fine without the extra fussin'.

 

[darkdan]

I guess the 3V heads make a HORRIBLE noise after an oil change. Something to do with oil pressure needed for the VVT or something.

I haven't heard it because I always prefill the filter.

Personally I think flooring it while trying to start it to do whatever....is overkill.

 

[caprice_2nv]

I didn't know that flooring it would cut the fuel off? The techs at the Ford dealer just pull the coil wire off if they need to crank the engine without starting it (usually just for power steering fluid flushes).
The 3v 5.4's do sound like they're blown right up whenever starting after an oil change.

 

[Whimsey]

I try to work as fast as possible when changing the oil. I make sure it's nice and hot(I really like to burn myself

) open the fill cap and the drain plug. While the oil is draining I break loose the filter, but don't remove it to the point of leaking yet. When the oil pan is down to a REAL SLOW drip I put the plug back in and move the oil catch pan over and remove the filter. It drains fast. I clean the spill tray and the filter mounting plate and mount the filter with the already pre-oiled gasket(by me). Add 6 quarts of oil and start the engine. It makes some noise for a second or two but then all quiet. I figure that by working fast the engine innards still have a film of protective oil on them. If I let the oil drain for a long period or overnight then I'd be more leary of the initial start after an oil change.

Whimsey

 

[Big Jim]

These newer Ford engines don't have a coil wire to pull. They have coil on plug (COP) ignition.

Many cars today will shut off the injectors when the throttle is held wide open. It provides a way to clear the cylinders shoud the engine become flooded.

I agree that priming the oil filter before starting after an oil change is unnecessary, but I also agree that it doesn't hurt anything if it gives you more piece of mind to hold the throttle down and crank until the oil light goes out before starting. The wear on the starter not significant.

 

[1040 WreckerMan]

This would be harder to do on some modern engines. On all my hotrod/racing engines, well almost all my engines really, I have an oil pressure switch wired to a relay that supplies power to the ignition (via normal key switch). I've done this so the ignition is de-powered if oil pressure drops below 15 psi (adjustable depending on pressure switch setting). A side affect of such a setup is that the engine won't get spark until more than 15 psi of oil pressure is present.

IMO not much load is imposed on an engine during cranking and idle. A short "dry start" isn't much to worry about. Having said that I should also mention that many of my engines use a pre/post lube pump or pressure accumulator. I've run many miles without such equipment, but I'm OCD

And for the record I don't suffer from insanity - I enjoy every minute.

 

[MNgopher]

No crazy routines here either. Do the oil and filter change and fire her up. Oil pressure comes up in 2-3 seconds, makes a rattle for maybe 1 second. With over a quarter million miles on two 4.6's following this routine, I've got no worries!

 

[MIAMI-DADE]

Same here as MNogopher.Start it up and go.After idle drops a bit which is only 30 seconds or so.I just put on over 150k on my 99 4.6 doing it that way.It was still running like new when i sold it.Only sold it due to bad hurricane damage.

Now i do the same on my 05 4.6 Crown Vic.