removing stuck oil filter

[kickass audio]

Hey all, I got myself into another big pinch. I have a 2013 Kawasaki Ultra300LX jet ski and went to change my oil but stupid me put the oil filter on with the socket and wrench so now I can't break the oil filter loose.

I tried with the socket and ratchet I used the first time to install it and it slipped off the filter and now it has a little dent on the keyed part of the filter.

I had tried to put some intertube between the filter socket and the filter and turn it off but because of where the filter is positioned in the hull I couldn't get a good pull or hammer to pound on the socket to the filter.

I tried to take a big pair of pliers and put them as far back near the oil cooler as I could and break it loose but failed with that too. It just crushed the can a good amount.

Just last night I went and sprayed some PB blaster on the little area between the filter and oil cooler in hopes of maybe soaking up the rubber gasket to make it slip but I doubt it will help any.

My question is this: do you have any other ideas on what I can do to get the damn oil filter off? I don't want to go straight to the screw driver method because I know that will just cut the can open into pieces and not bust it loose. I purchased oil filter pliers from snap on that are curved and have teeth to bite the can and hope to get it loose with that and if it doesn't I will then try to use a rubber cap you find in plumbing at the hardware store, clamp that on and try to pry it loose with a pair of pliers. If that fails then I will use the screw driver method to attempt and pry the can open and I bought a special tool that has 3 fingers that go inside the oil filter where the drainback holes are and hope to god I can spin it off that way. Otherwise if that fails, I am going to have to do about 3 hours of work to take the intake manifold off (which it is a supercharged engine so it is a lot of work to get it out) and get a screw driver and a hammer to bang the top of the filter from the oil cooler. If I had room, I'd use the screw driver to bang it off from the side but there is barely enough room for me to get a hammer in there, let alone to swing it and have enough force to beat it loose.

Any tips or help would be much appreciated guys!

 

[Machoman]

Have you tried a breaker bar?

 

[MAY03LT]

Is there enough room to get a band type filter wrench in there? Up at the top of the filter it's rigid enough that it won't crinkle with a lot of force on it. Either that or try an adjustable cup type filter socket.

 

[Mooseman]

Some ideas:

1. Use a pair of locking chain pliers, like these:

2. Use an air hammer at the base of the filter, like this:

One of the reasons I use K&N filters on my Yamaha sleds. That nut on the end just makes it so much easier.

 

[kickass audio]

I don't like the performance some have mentioned of using k&n so I don't use them. I use kawasaki OEM filters on my jet ski and AC delco's for my truck.

I can't get in there with a band style wrench. I have a smaller rubber style strap wrench I can try but the problem is that there is a lip on the lower part of the area where the filter sits and it sticks up about an inch from the top most part of the filter so I can't get all the way to where the threaded part sits.

There is no room for me to get in there with an impact hammer unless I remove the intake manifold which I am absolutely trying to avoid doing.

I cannot get in there with a breaker bar at all because there is about enough room just to fit my fist into the opening to get down and around the intake manifold to get at the filter. It is in a bitch of a spot, worse than the envoy.

 

[littleblazer]

I don't like the performance some have mentioned of using k&n so I don't use them. I use kawasaki OEM filters on my jet ski and AC delco's for my truck.

I can't get in there with a band style wrench. I have a smaller rubber style strap wrench I can try but the problem is that there is a lip on the lower part of the area where the filter sits and it sticks up about an inch from the top most part of the filter so I can't get all the way to where the threaded part sits.

There is no room for me to get in there with an impact hammer unless I remove the intake manifold which I am absolutely trying to avoid doing.

I cannot get in there with a breaker bar at all because there is about enough room just to fit my fist into the opening to get down and around the intake manifold to get at the filter. It is in a bitch of a spot, worse than the envoy.

What about the band type you put on a ratchet? Use an extension to go above the filter?

One of the up sides to a 2-stroke jet ski, just saying.

 

[kickass audio]

The filter is too small and I couldn't find a band style that would fit my tiny filter at any of the nearby stores.

And yes, I totally agree with you but you can't have a supercharged 300HP 2 stroke engine as far as I know of. lol.

 

[littleblazer]

The filter is too small and I couldn't find a band style that would fit my tiny filter at any of the nearby stores.

And yes, I totally agree with you but you can't have a supercharged 300HP 2 stroke engine as far as I know of. lol.

Idk, was it hot when you tried it? maybe spray it with the penetrating oil and get it hot then try channel locks again?

Well... you wouldn't need the super charger with the 2-stroke.

 

[kickass audio]

the oil was lukewarm. I didn't want to run the engine more than 10 minutes out of the water for risk of overheating it. It puts on a good smoke show when it is cold out as it is and I bet my neighbors would call the cops if I ran it longer than that to heat up the oil and attempt to rip the filter off.

I did spray penetrating fluid on it so it is soaked to all hell since last night. I was planning to spray it every night until I go at it this weekend.

also: it makes so much smoke when it is sitting out of the water that it is as bad as running seafoam through your intake. lol.

 

[littleblazer]

the oil was lukewarm. I didn't want to run the engine more than 10 minutes out of the water for risk of overheating it. It puts on a good smoke show when it is cold out as it is and I bet my neighbors would call the cops if I ran it longer than that to heat up the oil and attempt to rip the filter off.

I did spray penetrating fluid on it so it is soaked to all hell since last night. I was planning to spray it every night until I go at it this weekend.

You don't have a water hook-up to run it out of the water? I think if you go at it while it's pretty hot in might pop off, the screw driver is a last resort. Just in case you can't get it off.

 

[kickass audio]

It does have the hookup but I just pumped 2 gallons of antifreeze through it and don't want to have to do that again if I can avoid it.

 

[littleblazer]

Oh. Yea that makes sense.

 

[Mooseman]

You use ACDelco filters for your truck? They are one of the worst performing filters, made by Champion Labs. It's actually worst than Fram.
http://www.gmtruckcentral.com/articles/oilfilterstudy.html

Never heard anything bad about K&N and it scored one of the highest in the study (for cars though). Don't know about Kawasaki but I wasn't impressed with the overpriced Yamaha filters. Took one apart, meh. Checked out a video on the Kawasaki filter. Looks pretty good.

 

[littleblazer]

The Kawasaki filters look pretty nice. On marine stuff the filters are all pretty much good quality. The mercury filters used to be awesome but now they're e cores.

You could puncture the o ring if there's enough room too. Wait. Use a heat gun on the mount to heat it up, that could work too.

I normally change the boats oil in the spring. Give it a good flush, fog it with marvel mystery oil, add some to the oil. Then I drain the block, fill it with antifreeze and call it a season. Spring is gear lube and oil and I'm on my way.

 

[kickass audio]

I thought the ac delco ones were good. Glad to know that for my next oil change next summer. I'll grab a royal purple one since that tested best. I appreciate you mentioning that!!

I was totally thinking the heat gun but my intake manifold is plastic and since I can't see the bottom side of the manifold that well near the oil filter, I didn't want to go apeshit and get the oil filter really hot and risk getting the hot air blowing on the manifold and melting it. Sending 15PSI through the manifold with a hot spot probably wouldn't end well if i heated the manifold on accident.

 

[kickass audio]

update: HOLY FRIGGIN CRAP GUYS, IT'S OFF MY JET SKI!!!! I used my dad's massive rubber strap wrench he bought years ago (I forgot about the thing and was surprised it worked since we tried it on gas piping in the house and it didn't work worth crap on that compared to a monkey wrench) and broke it free. What was great about that is the rubber is 1/4" thick and long so it was very long and thick enough to get all around the filter and between the little lip on my oil cooler. I did as suggested and put the rubber strap wrench around the base of the filter and tightened the rubber strap as hard as I could against the filter so it didn't have much slack in the rubber. I then pushed the handle down as far as I could to get as much leverage as possible and pulled up with all my might. It had taken 2 pulls and I heard a faint crack and it broke free. I still used the strap wrench until I knew the filter was backed off so much that I saw the gap between the filter and oil cooler. I then pulled the strap off and removed the filter by hand.

Here is the funny part:
When the filter was removed, there was still a good amount of oil all over the rubber gasket. The gasket also turned on the filter since it has grease on both sides of the gasket. The only thing I see which is probably what stopped me from getting it off is that the gasket has a very tiny pinch mark (or at least it's what it looks like to me) where it's almost like I compressed one part of the gasket with something as thick as a staple but you can't feel the groove with your finger or finger nail.

Now for your advices on what to do when reinstalling it:
I know you MUST put oil on the seal before putting a new filter on. I went through and put oil on the seal and turned the new filter on the thread. I then kept turning it on until I felt a bit of resistance as the seal made contact with the flat surface of the oil cooler. I then turned it 1/4 of a turn past that and it feels fairly tight by hand. Is that good enough or should I go another 1/4 turn so in total I turned the filter 1/2 of a turn from when it made contact with the oil cooler's mounting plate?

Thank you all so very much for your tips. Seeing the picture that mooseman posted of the chain wrench jogged my memory on the rubber strap wrench my dad has laying around in the basement. I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner when I ran into the problem because I was thinking of getting a metal band wrench and putting some rough sandpaper or sticking some intertube to it and trying to break it free with that.

Here is a pic of my old filter with all the scratch and dents on it from my many attempts at using the oil filter socket and the pliers on the damn thing. lol.

 

[Wooluf1952]

Are there any instructions on the filter? IIRC, my Purolator Pure One calls for 3/4 of a turn after initial contact.

 

[BlazingTrails]

The reason it was stuck has nothing to do with the gasket being dry. the gasket just compresses into the grove. You tightened it down to where the metal filter was tight into the block. That's why you are only supposed to tighten it by hand, if not by hand only 1/4 after it is tightened by your hand.

Congrats on getting it off!

 

[Mike w]

I always stab a screwdriver through the filter near the bottom works every time.

 

[Mooseman]

What does the manual call for? Any info on the filter? The amount depends on the filter size and thread. Manual is your best bet.

Now that I see your filter, it looks just like Yamaha's, made by Denso. Too bad there isn't a comprehensive test on powersports filters like for automotive. Can't go wrong with them though.

 

[littleblazer]

Nice denso stamp. Glad it came off for you though. I normally do finger tips till it slips and one hand till it gets hard which is usually half a turn. Rather have to use tools then have it rattle off you know?

 

[kickass audio]

that's what I was thinking is either 1/4 or a 1/2 turn. I cannot find anything in the service manual for the oil filter for how far to turn it by hand. It gives the torque spec of 13ft lb which seems ungodly to me. What do you guys think for me going 1/2 of a turn from when it first made contact with the mounting surface? The rubber gasket on it is fairly thin and is rounded over so it squishes in very easily when I push on it with my fingers. I could get it to 1/2 of a turn from when it first made contact but that's at the point where my grip with my hand starts to slip some. at 1/4 of a turn past where it makes contact it is past snug and I have to put more pressure to remove it than I do to put it back on so I am thinking it won't back off. I didn't get a chance to start my jet ski and check for oil leaks since it was midnight and I also need to see if I may have messed up the wire going to my #1 fuel injector when I swung the wire harness up and out of my way as there is a little faint mark on the wire's outer jacket where it had tension when being pulled up and over. I can't feel any breaks in the wire but want to make sure it doesn't misfire or anything.

 

[littleblazer]

that's what I was thinking is either 1/4 or a 1/2 turn. I cannot find anything in the service manual for the oil filter for how far to turn it by hand. It gives the torque spec of 13ft lb which seems ungodly to me. What do you guys think for me going 1/2 of a turn from when it first made contact with the mounting surface? The rubber gasket on it is fairly thin and is rounded over so it squishes in very easily when I push on it with my fingers. I could get it to 1/2 of a turn from when it first made contact but that's at the point where my grip with my hand starts to slip some. at 1/4 of a turn past where it makes contact it is past snug and I have to put more pressure to remove it than I do to put it back on so I am thinking it won't back off. I didn't get a chance to start my jet ski and check for oil leaks since it was midnight and I also need to see if I may have messed up the wire going to my #1 fuel injector when I swung the wire harness up and out of my way as there is a little faint mark on the wire's outer jacket where it had tension when being pulled up and over. I can't feel any breaks in the wire but want to make sure it doesn't misfire or anything.

13 ft lbs is probably about half a turn past snug. I actually used an extension to snug up my spark plugs and then for giggles see what the max torque I could get was. It was a bout 15 and I didn't try that hard. The filter is wider in diameter and by physics, since it is more off the center, is easier to exert a force on... torque. Turning until you can't turn it anymore with one hand is probably plenty. Some where in the range of 20 I would guess. Half a turn is probably 15. On the trailblazer I go as tight as I can which is normally a turn past snug and I can usually get it free by hand the next time too.

Stop over thinking it and see how much force it takes to loosen it again. If you're leaning into it pretty good I wouldn't worry.

 

[kickass audio]

Sorry I just don't want to go down this road again next year. lol.

I'll see how it feels when I try to spin it off this weekend when I fog the engine and check the gap on the plugs.

You're right with my envoy. When I cracked the filter loose since I torqued that on with a wrench too, I loosened it up and put it back on 1 turn past where it started making contact and it felt nice and tight.

Side topic (in a way) I was trying some things with the one that was stuck on my jet ski. Like I mentioned, I tried stuffing intertube in the cup part of my filter socket but couldn't push the socket on the filter. I put a dab of oil on the rubber to try and hope that I could get it to slide over the socket when I pull it onto the filter but it didn't help, I then wiped the oil off and the rubber was tacky to the touch. It eventually went back to being the normal feeling of rubber but I just was thinking that maybe oil makes it somewhat sticky and can cause it to bind up. I don't know, maybe I'm just overthinking it but I just wanted to add that random piece that I noticed. lol.

 

[BlazingTrails]

You use ACDelco filters for your truck? They are one of the worst performing filters, made by Champion Labs. It's actually worst than Fram.
http://www.gmtruckcentral.com/articles/oilfilterstudy.html

Never heard anything bad about K&N and it scored one of the highest in the study (for cars though). Don't know about Kawasaki but I wasn't impressed with the overpriced Yamaha filters. Took one apart, meh. Checked out a video on the Kawasaki filter. Looks pretty good.

I would like to see them test more than one AC Delco filter before completely bashing the entire brand. I did a little research on oil filters when I just purchased a full case, and everything I found shows that the AC Delco PF61E Filters were of good quality. They are a new design and do have the drain-back valve, I even found a site where they cut open the PF61E and it had good reviews on construction? I am undecided on that one, but I have full case to burn through either way lol

 

[kickass audio]

I hear ya on that but I don't think the ones I have been using on my Envoy were that impressive. I just cut open the filter on my jet ski and the drain-back valve works so damn well that it didn't start draining the oil back into the middle of the filter until I had a hole through the side of the filter! That is really impressive to me. The rubber seat at the top for the drain-back was very flexible and definitely sealed it off well since I could feel the weight of the filter having oil on the outside of the filter media but couldn't get it out until I cut a hole on the side of the filter and it lost the vacuum for it. The ac-delco ones I ran which are the PF61E's have never had the weight of the oil sitting on the outside of the filter which makes me think the drain-back for them is not of a high quality like the one my jet-ski has. We will see how my current one holds up when I go and change my oil again next summer. I still think I will buy a royal purple one and see how it goes for me. It's not a big hit on me for the price difference from $3 to $11 so I won't whine about it lol.

For the finishing of my jet-ski I tightened the filter as much as I could by hand and at the odd angle my arm was at which is 1 full turn from when it started making contact so I would think I can get it off next year at the end of the summer.