To Change Or Not Engine Oil Filter.

[George7941]

At work I take care of a 2006 Freightliner with the Cat C7 engine with the HEUI injection system. If I let the oil run past 10000km/6300mi, the engine codes for "unable to reach desired injection pressure", obviously from the oil shearing down. I have settled on a oil change interval between 8k km and 10k km.

Engine takes 24 l of fresh oil at oil + filter change. The filter is a big 2 litre filter. Cat filters are about $26 though I just bought ten of them on sale at 50% off, bringing the price down to $13 each. So far I have replaced the filter at every oil change.

Should I replace the filter at only every other oil change? Every other oil change works out to 20000 km/12600 mi. This large filter should easily handle 20k km. I don't feel comfortable taking the filter off and draining the old oil out of it and reinstalling it back on the engine. The filter is mounted base up and I would have to invert it to drain the oil and there is too much risk of unfiltered oil making its way into the filtered section of the oil filter.

Would the 2 l of old sheared oil remaining in the filter significantly degrade the 22 l of fresh oil?

 

[AKhan87]

I doubt it, I think you should be fine.

 

[JC1]

I think two UOAs (one with the filter changed, the second without the filter changed) would tell you if leaving the filter on is ok.

 

[BobsArmory]

I would do just what the manufacturer says to do. After all they do know what is best for that engine. What do they say?

 

[Eddie]

Agree with BobsArmory

 

[abycat]

What kind and viscosity oil you running? For 13$ the oil filter would be my last worry. my f350 has a heui system in it as well but I monitor every piece of data on it and actually log every second of operation for review. I'm just over double the rated hp and torque for it so it's a bit touchy sometimes. I'm switching to a syn 10w30 for the same reason but my icp has never been that low to throw a code. That must be major shearing.

 

[CT8]

That is an complicated engine ! I would contact the MFG.

 

[DoubleWasp]

If the truck C7's are as bad as the marine C7's, I wouldn't play any games with that engine.

 

[George7941]

Originally Posted By: BobsArmory
I would do just what the manufacturer says to do. After all they do know what is best for that engine. What do they say?


Ha, ha, ha.
Cat recommends
25k km light duty
20k km medium duty
16k km heavy duty
13k km severe duty

Engine hours vs vehicle kms shows avg vehicle speed to be 35 km/hr (city moving truck). OEMs consider this to be medium duty service. But the engine codes even before the severe duty interval.

 

[George7941]

Originally Posted By: abycat
What kind and viscosity oil you running? For 13$ the oil filter would be my last worry. my f350 has a heui system in it as well but I monitor every piece of data on it and actually log every second of operation for review. I'm just over double the rated hp and torque for it so it's a bit touchy sometimes. I'm switching to a syn 10w30 for the same reason but my icp has never been that low to throw a code. That must be major shearing.


I changed the oil yesterday. It had Rotella T3 10W30. I replaced it with Delvac 1300 10W30. 10W30 is the grade recommended by Cat.

 

[George7941]

Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
If the truck C7's are as bad as the marine C7's, I wouldn't play any games with that engine.


The basic engine, derived from the Cat 3126, is sound. The engine currently has 592k km on the original engine. The weak link is the high pressure pump, it has a weak roller bearing that eventually grenades, sending metal debris through the HEUI system, wiping out the injectors. Cat charges about 8000$ Cdn to replace the HEUI pump and injectors.

The HEUI system is not half as bad as the International equivalent, those are horrible. We had an International 4200 with the VT365 and a Ford F450 with the 6.0 PowerStroke. The company owner bought those at auctions against my recommendation and those trucks kept me real busy. We got rid of those trucks and life has not been very exciting since then.

 

[abycat]

I'm actually a fan of the 365 heui system. It is picky but not bad once you figure it out. Oil and fuel additives and a few mods. I'm running 52 volt ficm instead of the usual 48v. removed a few restrictions and installed the fuel regulator spring. I'm getting enough fuel but if I make any more power im in need of an upgrade. I have addressed every issue with the 6.0 and being able to do it all myself I didn't spend much money. I sure do love the sound and power from my little engine though