I know the general consensus is to wet the rubber gasket with new oil, but i was just wondering what u guys think about pouring oil in the new oil filter before installing it. Some ppl do it and some ppl don't, i'm just curious of ur guys' opinions on this practice.

thx,
bigegg

 

It's not a bad practice. The more oil you can put in the filter, the faster the engine will achieve a positive oil pressure when you start her back up. That can only be a good thing.

The problem I've had with most cars I've owned is that the filter is not in a place and/or position where I can get it screwed back on before most of the oil I put in the filter, runs back out.

The seating face of the S2000's oil filter is close to vertical. I'm not sure how much oil you'd loose while screwing it back on. If you don't mind making a bit of a mess, it shouldn't be too bad.

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

Not necessary......

The 5.1 quarts takes into consideration for the oil filter.

 

I tend to do this just because I like to make sure the filter is coated before putting it on the car. Just peace of mind

 

well if you do it i found that the oil lamp in the dash goes out faster.

 

This isn't a bad idea, I'm going to try this at my next oil change.

 

Yeah, I think I'll try this too. Fo rthose of you who have, how much oil has spilled out before you got the filter on?

Warren

 

I don't fill the filter I usually just put enough in so that it won't come pouring out when I put it on. I do tend to have a little dribble out but if you fill it full you will loose a good amount. It's the type of thing you can eyeball when you are holding the filter and looking at the angle it's mounted on the block.

 

You get a little oil that drips out, but it's easy to wipe up. You don't have to fill the filter all the way up. Even if you fill it half way, you're significantly reducing the time without oil pressure.

When you have oil pressure, you have "hydrodynamic lubrication". That means that there is essentially no metal-to-metal contact. A good analogy would be sliding on a slip-and-slide filled with water. You don't actually touch the slide, just the water.

Without oil pressure, you are experiencing "boundary lubrication" and some "mixed film lubrication". Here, you're getting some metal-to-metal contact, and you're depending heavily on the anti-wear additives in your oil to protect the metal surfaces. Contaminants (suspended particles) in your oil could act as grit between the two metal surfaces, causing some abrasion as well.

When you changed your oil and filter without prefilling it, you will notice that it takes up to about 2 seconds to get oil pressure. Since our car's oil pressure sender is located after the filter, this is an accurate measurement of when your engine actually gets the pressurized oil. If you prefill your filter, you will notice that the time it takes to get pressure is significantly reduced like jzz30 says.

Let's say for example that prefilling your filter reduces this no-pressure condition by 1/2 second. When you first start a cold engine, idle is somewhere around 1600 RPM. So your engine rotates over 26 times each second without oil pressure. If you cut off 1/2 second, you are preventing your engine from running without pressure for around 13 revolutions.

IMO, you're not doing damage to your engine by not prefilling it, but you are putting a little more wear on your bearings, rings and cylinders. If you're really anal about maintaining your car (like I am) you'd fill your filter at least half way.

 

Here's the other side of the story:
If you've been reading any of Road Rage's posts, you will see that he has indicated that oil adheres to the metal parts of the engine for quite some time. In fact, many, many days before you get to a critical "metal to metal" contact.
And what about those who store their cars for months and start them? Metal to metal contact? Sure. But how much has that shortened the life of the engine? Compare a stored car that gets a cold, dry start once or twice a year to one that is started after an oil change where the oil filter starts out being empty. What's that? 2, maybe 3 times a year? And these are engines that were just lately running.
I don't think having no oil pressure for a couple of seconds at idle will cause significant harm. Personally, I can't be bothered with filling the filter on a car where a lot of it falls out before you get it screwed on. I guess I'm just not that anal. I've had engines that have grenaded for various reasons, but none have been due to oil starvation because of an empty new oil filter.

ps. I guess anal Corvette ZR-1 owners have all been in therapy over with filling their filters since they are mounted completely upside down.