Oil Filter Reloaction Kits...

[SuperDave456]

I am thinking about buying a Oil Filter Relocation kit for my '04 Nissan Xterra. It has a 3.3 quart Sump, and it tears up Conventional oil in 3,000 miles, and Synthetic in 5,000 miles.

I know it is blastphemous, but I get tired of spending my life under my vehicles changing oil. I have better things to do than change fluids every weekend.

So I am thinking about buying a oil filter relocation kit that will expand the capacity of the system, perhaps something with 2 full flow filters, so that this car will have a greater volume of oil.
I do a LOT of city and highway driving, and almost no offroad. Due to the placement of the current filter, and the rock guard I am thinking about mounting the relocation kit to the inside of the rock guard so that it is easy to get to, yet secure.

What are your thoughts about all this?

 

[brandini]

You have used oil analysis to show?

 

[SuperDave456]

I will have to find my last one. Got it around here somewhere.

 

[suspiciousmind]

I don't blame you Dave, at least you understand the duress your oil is under. I had a Mitsubishi die on me and I blamed the less than four quart sump on a 3.6? V6(blame myself too, that's why I'm here).

I'd look into some fat hoses too for even more volume.

 

[willix]

A remote filter is a good idea. 2 filters is overkill. It will aid in cooling & capacity. I would suggest finding an adapter kit that replaces the filter and has lines that have the correct flow to a mount easily accessible and a spot that will cool it better. There are kits out there and filters can be found with twice the capacity or more.

 

[SuperDave456]

A link to my previous UOA.
I have been running synthetic since then and havent seen a reason for another UOA for the time being.
Planning to get another to develop more trending here in the next couple of months, one a year type of deal.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/posts/1432268/

Edited to add:
I now drive the Xterra. My wife drives more than I do so she gets the Taurus, which gets 27-28mpg highway, the Xterra gets at best 17mpg.

 

[Gary Allan]

Your best buy for a remote mounting kit is the Spectre 5971 oil change kit on Amazon. Tons of useful hardware. It has the adapters (internal and external threads) for just about everything. That allows you to use the OEM filter if it's of some special requirement. Otherwise you can just grab the 3/4-16 thread and go as big as you can fit.

If convenient, you can just lay this in the engine bay and zip tie it fast to just about anything. You just cut the zip ties to put a pan under it and rezip the thing fast when you're done.

The kit comes with a drain hose with banjo bolt setup and a 12V fluid pump. That way you can empty the sump from up top if you so desire. There's also a drain "bolt within a bolt" if you wanted to use this hose as a return for some bypass filter setup.

 

[dnewton3]

Adding a remote filter mount will make things easier; you will gain convenience and a small bit of volume. I had a 2000 Frontier with that same engine/filter/sump. It really is a pain to change. I can see, in this case, where a remote mount would make things easier. But it will also add complexity and offer more opportunities for leaks. Evernthing is a trade-off in life.

I don't see evidence where the engine is "tearing up" your oil (at least not from this one UOA). I see one UOA that really wasn't bad at all. One UOA is not a reasonable view to make such a bold statement. You need several successive used oil analysis to make a determination of the engine/oil relationship. That was your first synthetic UOA. Where were the dino used oil analysis? Do you have more syn used oil analysis? If not for the TBN, there would be plenty of reason to continue running that oil. All oil reports have the potential for some error; did you ever check with Blackstone about the TBN? Did you do a bunch more used oil analysis to verify the numbers? Further, I presume you have no VOA on that load; how can you be sure the low TBN didn't start that way? Did you just see one UOA from a narrow point of view, and then panic?

 

[SuperDave456]

Nope, no panicking. Just thinking about getting a relocation kit.
Haven't ordered one, going to do more research before I do.
I only have one UOA on that car. I was curious as to how the 3.3 quart capacity worked for it.
Typically I do a conservative OCI on all my cars and don't worry about changing them out before the oil is "DONE".

I'm thinking about sticking to my current configuration because over the weekend a new project came up. I have elsewhere to spend my time, money and research.

 

[dnewton3]

Like I said, I've had a vehicle/engine like yours, and I cursed that set up too. So a relocation kit makes sense; just know that with that advantage also comes risks.

But I simply don't understand how you can say definitively that your engine is "tearing up" the oil, especially after one decent UOA?

 

[stenerson]

3.3 quart sump? Sheesh! that's small.

 

[Shaman]

My 660cc engine has a 3L sump.

Gary, what are the thread sizes for the Specter? How big do they go? I can't find the info on the site.

 

[Gary Allan]

They include nipples for all the popular sizes. They'll either thread directly into the remote/block adapter, or thread over it (internal and external threads).

What's kinda odd (the kit is not in front of me) is that they give you 5 sets of threaded adapters ...5 hollow/banjo bolts for the extraction hose (great return for a bypass) ...but only 3 drain plugs bushings

One would reason that since you're sharing the same common hose/banjo fitting, that one hollow bolt would work with just having a common internal thread to the drain bolt reducer bushing.

I might be forgetting something, though. My memory recalls being able to pull a smaller plug to drain the pan without disturbing the banjo assembly. I would imagine it's a fail safe in case your pump becomes inoperative.