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Neat gadget but completely unneeded
Man invents oil filter prefill tool
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Not the first time this tool was invented. Caterpillar Inc, 1996. Patent now expired.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5819822A/en
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5819822A/en
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Very interesting.
Well that makes sense. Because nobody saw its usefulness and it failed. Just like the new one will.
It was probably used by Caterpillar and on other similar giant oil filters used on huge diesel engines where the service manual said to prefill the oil filter, but certainly not by the avg Joe mechanic.
CleanSump
Site Donor 2026
A simple steady hand or a funnel will do it. Maybe the ADV may prevent a little air escaping when almost full - Meh.
Gadgets are great for kitchens, German cars, and those who like gadgets just because they like gadgets.
Gadgets are great for kitchens, German cars, and those who like gadgets just because they like gadgets.
To be fair, his tool actually sucks it in through the 'dirty' side of the filter so that you avoid any contaminants getting past the filter, but still. That has got to be such a tiny amount that it just doesn't matter.
That and he's 3d printing the things. There are filaments that will stand up to oil and gas, but I don't think they'll do it long-term.
And it just looks like a massive mess waiting to happen and a pain in the rear for .00000000001% benefit.
They probably decided it wasn't worth the hassle of sucking the oil into the filter and that just dumping it in was good enough.
Bet that Caterpillar tool was pretty much exclusively used only by shops that did big diesel engines. I think Caterpillar conducted some studies that found new bulk oil could be pretty dirty, and Caterpillar does say to prefill oil filters because they are gigantic and they want fast oil supply and pressure to the engine when a new filter is installed.
Here's a link to a PDF that talks about fluid contamination and Caterpillar Service Centers:
https://proactivereliability.com/wp...aterpillar-service-center-5-star-solution.pdf
Snip from page 1 ... so that Caterpillar filter prefill device was most likely invented because of this finding.
Makes far more sense to do it at the dispenser.
I know LSJr gets a hard time sometimes, but does anyone remember what the ISO ratings were that he had done in his oil filter vid? Might have to go look those up. Now I'm curious if newer oils are shipped 'cleaner'.
I'd think new oil in bottles and jugs coming from major oil makers (Valvoline, Mobil, Pennzoil, Castrol, HPL, etc) should be pretty clean ... acceptable enough to simply pour down the center tube to prefill. Until I see evidence from a particle count on some new bottled oil I'd go with that theory these days - bulk oil might be a different story. There might be some VOAs with a particle count on this site, haven't search for any. LSJr might have some VOAs too with ISO particle count data as you mentioned.
Back when Caterpillar made that tool, maybe the bulk oils they got was proven too dirty for their liking and came up with the filter prefill tool that puts the oil on the dirty side so it can be filtered.
Found it.
This was the particle count out of their bulk drum:
And what CAT called out in their paper
I'm not a particle count expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I call that 'close enough'.
Or at least close enough to not fudge around with some janky tool.
This was the particle count out of their bulk drum:
And what CAT called out in their paper
I'm not a particle count expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I call that 'close enough'.
Or at least close enough to not fudge around with some janky tool.
All of those statements are grossly inaccurate.
You are overstating the benefit.
4wd
$50 site donor 2026
Maybe he stayed at a Holiday Inn?
Shouldn't because the engine RPM is pretty low. It might if the filter is almost completely clogged, but shouldn't be running them to that level.
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