After reading about all the horror stories about how hard and messy changing the oil on a 13 and newer 6.7 Cummins was I used all the info I gleaned from everyone and changed oil today for the first time at 2,900 miles on my 15 RAM Dually. Last night I looked over the conditions and came up with a game plan.
First I placed a milk bucket under the drain pan and used a 1/2" ratchet with a 1/2 to 3/8 reducer. Makes it easy to break loose the drain plug. I wore a glove on my left hand and spun the drain plug loose and removed it allowing the oil to drain into the bucket. NO MESS AT ALL!
This is the trick! Remove the bolt in the pic with a 10MM socket.
I sprayed AMZ/OIL MP to help loosen the hose then I slid back the clamp and easily slid off the hose.
Then I loosened the intake tube at each end with a 5/16 socket and removed the tube. Now the oil filter is easily accessible.
I removed the filter with a large jaw type filter wrench. Yes the Cummins "GORILLA" was working that day the engine was assembled!
I reached thru the fender and slipped the freezer bag over the filter, from above I spun off the filter and lifted it up with out spilling a drop.
Then I filled the filter installed from above and re installed the air intake.
Pic of tools used.
First I placed a milk bucket under the drain pan and used a 1/2" ratchet with a 1/2 to 3/8 reducer. Makes it easy to break loose the drain plug. I wore a glove on my left hand and spun the drain plug loose and removed it allowing the oil to drain into the bucket. NO MESS AT ALL!
This is the trick! Remove the bolt in the pic with a 10MM socket.
I sprayed AMZ/OIL MP to help loosen the hose then I slid back the clamp and easily slid off the hose.
Then I loosened the intake tube at each end with a 5/16 socket and removed the tube. Now the oil filter is easily accessible.
I removed the filter with a large jaw type filter wrench. Yes the Cummins "GORILLA" was working that day the engine was assembled!
I reached thru the fender and slipped the freezer bag over the filter, from above I spun off the filter and lifted it up with out spilling a drop.
Then I filled the filter installed from above and re installed the air intake.
Pic of tools used.
FishOnOne wrote:rhagfo wrote:Cummins12V98 wrote:Bionic Man wrote:
This is turning into another example of how forums like this are by far the exception to what happens in mainstream America.
I would be willing to venture a guess that less than 10% of people change their own oil in their cars. And it is probably MUCH less than that. I am not sure I personally know anyone who changes their own oil. And unless I go on a Fish story, where a friend of an aquainatance of a neighbors dogsitters cousin, I have never heard of a true problem caused by an incompetent tech. I know they are out there, but they are far from rampant.
I have 4 vehicles plus a couple of boats in my "personal fleet" of vehicles. I change the oil in my fishing boat, but nothing else. The worst thing that has happend in having someone else change the oil is Grease Monkey didn't correctly reattach the air dam on my wife's 300 one time. Quick trip back to them, and it was fixed.
That is 25 plus years of driving, who knows how many cars.
More power to those that have the time and inclination to do their own oil changes. But having someone do the service for you is far from the riskiest thing you will do in the day.
My Daughter worked art Walmart changing tires and oil. She is a smart gal but the stories she told me about the Monkeys she worked with were amazing. I personally know someone that had their oil pan replaced by Walmart because they stripped the plug.
I like to know my vehicles inside and out. Get underneath it and look it over once in a while like when changing oil.
I agree 100%!
As a kid I worked on my own vehicles to save money, now I work on them as therapy! ๐
I agree too. I actually enjoy changing the oil on our vehicles.
Note: Vehicles that require standard methods to perform an oil change that is.
Dude this is getting old! Do we need to start discussing what needs to be done to some trucks to have the engine worked on?
I proved it is not a big deal to do a oil change on a 13 and newer RAM using the method I described. It is something that can be done while the oil is draining or are you one that drops the oil then without it finishing draining the plug goes in and then the oil?
I guess I should do a YouTube video of how quick and easy it is to R&R the air intake.
But instead I will leave it to the RAM owners that do appreciate info that makes the oil change a easy task now.
Two hose clamps one bolt and a spring clamp, gee I should sell my POS before I have a breakdown worrying about my next oil change.
Ok, confession time, I guess, because I guess it's kind of funny now...
I've been doing my own maintenance work on my vehicles since I was quite young, working along side my dad on construction and farm equipment growing up - from oil changes to engine changes and most everything in between.
I got a new to me 07' Dodge 2500 5.9 Cummins recently, replacing a 97 Dodge 2500 Cummins 5.9. So, first oil change this weekend and decided to overthink it and over-engineer it. I got this new oil drain pan last year
and decided to use it instead of just the 5 gallon bucket, for some reason (seemed like a good idea at the time). But, since the 5.9 CTD holds 12 quarts, and I knew the drain pan only holds 9, I needed more capacity. I like draining the oil hot, and uninterrupted flow to get rid of as much stuff as possible, so draining part of the oil, stopping and switching drain pans is not something I wanted to do.
So, I put the drain pan on top of a 5 gallon bucket (I park on a sloped driveway and roll down onto ramps which levels the truck and gives me a LOT of room under the front end of the truck, so the drain pan on top of the bucket still gave me 12" of room to work). Then, knowing I had more oil coming out than the pan would hold, I took the pan cap off, and positioned another 5 gallon bucket under that. Rube Goldberg would be proud! ๐
So, surprise #1 - On my '97, the drain plug had a couple of slots in the stem of the plug, so it would drain well with the plug still partially threaded into the pan. On the '07, nope - nothing drained until the plug was completely removed ... and then, oh BOY did it drain!
Surprise #2 - This new oil drain pan has 2 holes in the sump, letting oil drain down into the container. The flow from the oil pan overwhelmed the holes in the drain pan, so hot oil overflowed the front of the drain pan ... all over (and I do mean ALL OVER) the driveway... and me. Right about here I'm reminded of the old joke about the cost of DIY oil change ... as I turned a 30 minute job into a 2 hour clean up.
On the positive side, the oil filter is easy to get to from below, using this oil filter wrench.
and lowers straight down and out, without any need to tip, wiggle, maneuver or spill, and the new one goes right back in the same way, full of oil, without a spill.
The fuel filter is similar but much easier on the '07 than the '97, with the filter staying attached to the canister lid, rather than having to drop the lower part of the canister and maneuver it out around a bunch of obstacles.
So, even after speedy dry, degreaser and power washer on the driveway, I have a stain to remind me - Keep It Simple, Stupid! and will be going back to just the bucket under the drain.
I've vacillated on the Fumoto drain plug
but still just cannot bring myself to install something that hangs down below the oil pan, just begging to get knocked off while off-roading, in spite of a couple of friends running them without issue.
I've been doing my own maintenance work on my vehicles since I was quite young, working along side my dad on construction and farm equipment growing up - from oil changes to engine changes and most everything in between.
I got a new to me 07' Dodge 2500 5.9 Cummins recently, replacing a 97 Dodge 2500 Cummins 5.9. So, first oil change this weekend and decided to overthink it and over-engineer it. I got this new oil drain pan last year
and decided to use it instead of just the 5 gallon bucket, for some reason (seemed like a good idea at the time). But, since the 5.9 CTD holds 12 quarts, and I knew the drain pan only holds 9, I needed more capacity. I like draining the oil hot, and uninterrupted flow to get rid of as much stuff as possible, so draining part of the oil, stopping and switching drain pans is not something I wanted to do.
So, I put the drain pan on top of a 5 gallon bucket (I park on a sloped driveway and roll down onto ramps which levels the truck and gives me a LOT of room under the front end of the truck, so the drain pan on top of the bucket still gave me 12" of room to work). Then, knowing I had more oil coming out than the pan would hold, I took the pan cap off, and positioned another 5 gallon bucket under that. Rube Goldberg would be proud! ๐
So, surprise #1 - On my '97, the drain plug had a couple of slots in the stem of the plug, so it would drain well with the plug still partially threaded into the pan. On the '07, nope - nothing drained until the plug was completely removed ... and then, oh BOY did it drain!
Surprise #2 - This new oil drain pan has 2 holes in the sump, letting oil drain down into the container. The flow from the oil pan overwhelmed the holes in the drain pan, so hot oil overflowed the front of the drain pan ... all over (and I do mean ALL OVER) the driveway... and me. Right about here I'm reminded of the old joke about the cost of DIY oil change ... as I turned a 30 minute job into a 2 hour clean up.
On the positive side, the oil filter is easy to get to from below, using this oil filter wrench.
and lowers straight down and out, without any need to tip, wiggle, maneuver or spill, and the new one goes right back in the same way, full of oil, without a spill.
The fuel filter is similar but much easier on the '07 than the '97, with the filter staying attached to the canister lid, rather than having to drop the lower part of the canister and maneuver it out around a bunch of obstacles.
So, even after speedy dry, degreaser and power washer on the driveway, I have a stain to remind me - Keep It Simple, Stupid! and will be going back to just the bucket under the drain.
I've vacillated on the Fumoto drain plug
but still just cannot bring myself to install something that hangs down below the oil pan, just begging to get knocked off while off-roading, in spite of a couple of friends running them without issue.
The Mad Norsky wrote:
Fish said "BTW... I do respect the fact you prefer to do this yourself. I couldn't imagine having some kid perform this task at the lube shop. Way too many opportunities for a mistake to be made with unintended consequences."
Well, after reading Cummins 12V's original post here, went out to my truck to look for that 10mm bolt on the turbo hoses, just to familiarize myself.
Looking around the motor compartment, suddenly I spotted something out of the corner of my eye;
THIS:
ITS NOT MINE!
Facing rearward from the front of the truck, it was laying stuck between the fan shroud and the air filter box. God only knows how long it has been in there. Wedged in good, so at least it was not getting into the fan or belt systems.
But I don't think it was the correct size (21mm metric) to be of any use in the one vehicle service my local dealer has done, an oil change, so it could have been in there from the factory even.
But its is idiot stuff like this that makes me want to do my own service work, and stay away from the clowns that do the work at many places.
Gosh this made me angry to find this. And thankful, as I said, that it was wedged in so good that it didn't rattle into the fan or belts and cause serious damage while I was driving around.
I've looked under that hood dozens of times, and this was the very first time I had even seen this.
As I said, it was not mine, but it is now.
That's awesome! I am glad my post prompted you to find a potentially serious situation.
Yea I just don't trust too many people to touch my rigs. I have a frame and axle guy I completely trust and have known him for 38 years.
