Engine Oil Extraction

[jbinbi]

I have been using this device for the past 8 years on a yanmar 3ym30

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-...23?recordNum=1

Put one end into the dipstick tube almost to the bottom, pump and wait until it extracts via a vacuum.

However, you need to have oil relatively warm. I usually do this once a year, at the end of the year before it is hauled. So i get to dock, wait 30 minutes or so , extract oil, change filter, re fill, run engine to distribute oil while feeding antifreeze into strainer until I see the pink stuff come out the side, then shut everything down.

This doesn't really get all the oil out, I pump it , wait, pump it , wait, etc.

Wondering if there are better ways to get the oil out. Thanks.

[roverhi]

Suction pumps work fine, no real need to get the last 1/4" of oil out. Assume you are running the engine and getting the oil hot and everything mixed up before you pump it out.

[travellerw]

We have used that device for the last 3 years. Best purchase I ever made.

Our Volvos do have a separate tube that actually sucks from the bottom of the oilpan though. This allows us to extract pretty much all the oil. Are you sure your Yanmar doesn't have that option? Ours was hidden and I didn't know about it till someone showed me.

[a64pilot]

You want the oil warm, actually running temperature, and you want to suck it out immediately after shut down.
Reason is your not getting every drop out of course, and if you let it bigger particles of soot and carbon, exactly what you want removed will settle down to the bottom of the pan and are not likely removed, but if you do it with the oil stirred up, you have a much better change of getting the “dirt” out.

[hellosailor]

There are variations on that extractor but they are all very similar. About all you can do to improve it, is to get three feet of thin copper tubing and ram it into the plastic suction tube. That *might* allow you to get the copper tube all the way to the bottom of the engine, rather than debating how the plastic is lying. And then you file or cut a couple of slots in the tubing, so that when the tubing is sitting flush on the pan, it can still suck in oil.
Buy a good book, get a cup of coffee, you just have to sit and wait. The only thing that is even marginally better are the professional versions of the oil extractors, which use either compressed air or electricity to power extract the oil a bit faster. Odds are you don't want to get into that expense.

[redbeard1]

Originally Posted by travellerw

Our Volvos do have a separate tube that actually sucks from the bottom of the oilpan though. This allows us to extract pretty much all the oil.

Hi,


Travellerw - What model engine do you have? I've looked for a car-type drain plug on our volvo 2003B but could never find one.


Thanks in advance.

[hellosailor]

I've never chased it down, but consistent rumor is that is it against either USCG or CFR or some other regulations to have any type of drain plug on the oil pan of a marine propulsion engine. When this went into effect, I don't know. Whether it just applies to commercial boat builders, I don't know. But that's what I keep hearing.

So, don't expect to find an automobile type drain plug. On a car, if it falls out (and they do, quite a bit more than you think) you get a red light, you pull over and call AAA, no big problem. On a boat...big problem, no AAA, and now there's oil to be discharged from the bilge. So there's a logic is saying boats can't be built this way.

Which doesn't stop you from jacking up the engine, removing the drain pan, and having one tapped in.

[pdxsailordiver]

My 1975 4-107 has a drain plug.

[pwillems]

Originally Posted by jbinbi

Wondering if there are better ways to get the oil out. Thanks.

I wouldn't worry too much about getting the last drop, but if it does concern you, you'll need to investigate your engine to see if there is a way to rig something to the lowest point in the pan.

I have a permanently rigged pump that does exactly that. It's harder work than the vacuum pump though, takes some muscle... Then again, that could be because my Gardner holds around 20 liters of oil.

https://www.whitworths.com.au/pump-sump-delux

[Rapanui]

We have 2 off 3ym30's and use a vacuum extractor with the hose a tight fit inside the top (but past the small breather hole) of the dip tube with the oil hot after a good run . It seems to extract pretty well all the oil and that is supported by the fact that when we refill the oil, run the engine back up to temperature and check the oil, there is virtually no colour to the oil which indicates to me that the percentage of old oil is very low.
Before extracting the oil, we crack open the oil filter to allow oil in the galleries to drain down. A disposable incontinence bed pad under the filter area catches any stray oil, re-used to catch stray fuel from changing the primary and secondary fuel filters.

[travellerw]

Originally Posted by redbeard1

Hi,


Travellerw - What model engine do you have? I've looked for a car-type drain plug on our volvo 2003B but could never find one.


Thanks in advance.

We have an MD2030.. Where the car type drain plug would be, is instead a tube with a banjo fitting and hollowed bolt. That is our low point drain and where we suck from.

Unfortunately, I don't know the 2003 motors..