[swatara_gap]

Hello!

I got sick of messy oil changes, and it needed the seasonal oil change, so I decided to change a few things.

The first thing I did was to make a drain pan for the oil filter. I used an old bar oil/chain lube jug, but I'm sure any half to one gallon jug would work. A bolt on the block holds it in place, and I contoured the center to match the filter, so the improvised drain pan stays in place.



As you can see, it works fairly well.






I always hole the filter so they drain completely, and you can see the factory oil drain.





Even with the starter off, it's hard to reach with an open end wrench, and it kept working its way lose. There was no way to get a deep well on it because of the yellow piece of plastic. Once, so much oil dripped that it caused the drive belt to slip. I had to use belt dressing to get the tractor to pull a hill.



These LF157F filters are made in America, and they're under four dollars. I've never used the ones $ears $ells.




I couldn't find the size elbow and straight pipe I wanted in regular steel, so I had to buy these. The elbow was made in USA, but the pipe was manufactured in Taiwan. I reused the factory petcock.



Here's the finished job, and no more messy oil changes with the dodgy plastic tube and petcock that was impossible to tighten.



I'm sure this was redundant for many, but there are those out there that are lurking... Additionally, if you're anything like me, I get as much pleasure reading about other people's work and eyeballing their photos.

Cheers and thanks for reading,
bolillo_loco

 

[atfigure]

good tweak, will save you some time and the mess :congrats:

 

[catdoo]

Just did one of those messy oil changes yesterday and I was going to do the pipe thing in the future myself but the oil filter "catchall" is a stroke of genius, thanks for the idea.

 

[Slow Crawler]

very cool idea!!!! I like the catch all for the filter change :congrats:

 

[simpleman569]

wish I saw that yesterday.

 

[Whirly]

all those factory 'no tool' drain jobs will seep oil ..I remove them...& put a lil short nipple down where u showed u replaced ur's ....then put a hex cap on the bottom.. also....use teflon pipe thread tape on all the threads.. I have seen the factory jobs get hit with a twig...& it will open them....

also have replaced 2 engines on mowers that were 2 & 3 yrs old....cause factory thing leaked & engines busted rods in them

 

[krazystang]

Looks very similar to my setup. I added a on / off lever also. Awesome Modification!

So much easier and cleaner than the stock oil changing method.

 

[Whirly]

Looks very similar to my setup. I added a on / off lever also. Awesome Modification!

So much easier and cleaner than the stock oil changing method.

that set-up looks great....'cept one thing ..I would have used the ball valve that has a lock on the handle which prevents it from comming open by itself..this lock is a lil device u slide back away from the valve with one finger ... it is located on the angled part of ur handle.. am not sure if it also locks in the open position.. but if it does... u can mount it so u can still operate the lockin device when open too

 

[krazystang]

that set-up looks great....'cept one thing ..I would have used the ball valve that has a lock on the handle which prevents it from comming open by itself..this lock is a lil device u slide back away from the valve with one finger ... it is located on the angled part of ur handle.. am not sure if it also locks in the open position.. but if it does... u can mount it so u can still operate the lockin device when open too

I agree. You definitely have to be careful that no one slides it to the open position.. Since this picture, I have added a threaded plug that is attached to the bottom of the elbow. Good fail-safe if the lever is turned.

A locking ball valve seems like a great idea though!

 

[nobones]

bungee cord?

 

[swatara_gap]

that set-up looks great....'cept one thing ..I would have used the ball valve that has a lock on the handle which prevents it from comming open by itself..this lock is a lil device u slide back away from the valve with one finger ... it is located on the angled part of ur handle.. am not sure if it also locks in the open position.. but if it does... u can mount it so u can still operate the lockin device when open too

Like Krazystang, I wanted to use the exact same valve. What I'd have done is to buy or fish about the junk bin for a threaded plug, and I'd have used that in case somebody or something opened the valve. I'd venture a guess that Krazystang's elbow's threaded on the bottom, so just put a threaded plug on it.

I know my last photo's not too clear in my original post, but I did use teflon tape. That's SOP.

Cheers,
bolillo

 

[RAND81]

Im doing this for sure, i have a 2012 GT6000.

You answered exactly what i needed to know, 3/8" NPT.

 

[vic3500]

The OPs pics are all gone....anybody have them saved. Or OP still around o repost? Thx

 

[swatara_gap]

The OPs pics are all gone....anybody have them saved. Or OP still around o repost? Thx

I'm sorry, but I've looked in my photo folders twice now, and I can't find any from this project. I delete all photos in my web hosting account several times per year. I'm sure that the Sears/Craftsman subsection of this forum is full of dead links due to my photobucket cleaning.

If I upload attachments, will they only stay in the thread I'm posing? I don't care about my photos or text, and by this I mean, I hold no proprietary sentiment towards them, and I fully understand that after I post something, within 15 - 30 minutes, it becomes the property of MyTractorForum.com

I'm sorry that you've found my dead links, but the drain I fabricated looks similar to what others have used.

I'm sorry that you missed the photos,
bolillo

P/S I'll make a better effort to find them again, and if I do, I'll repost.

 

[vic3500]

No Problem. Thanks for responding. Cheers !

 

[Tracor_Newbie]

Glad I saw this now!
I have a non-original engine on my tractor, and the drain pipe is hard to reach. Just putting a valve upstream of the threaded cap will make things much easier!

 

[swatara_gap]

I do not know how to edit my photo address so it shows again in my original post. There's a time limit on how long one can edit a post. Once that time expires, the thread's now the property of MyTractorForum.com, and I no longer have access to it. If that's not a 100% accurate assessment, it's close enough for the purpose of this thread.

What I did was to take off the factory drain plug, go to the local hardware store, and find a piece of 4 inch pipe and a 90° elbow. I had wanted to get a petcock, but the brass ones were 10.00 - 14.00 dollars if I remember correctly.

The drain pan I made



It clips in behind a bolt on the engine.



The "catch all" as one member described it, works quite well.



In my case, the proper thread was 3/8 I.D. pipe and elbow. It's a small locally owned ACE hardware store in rural Pennsylvania, so I had to buy what they had on the shelf.



Finished job. Sorry for the blurry photo. The white on the ends of the 4" pipe is teflon tape.



It's now 15+ hours post drain modification, and I haven't had one drop of oil leak. With the old set up, the yellow factory petcock was constantly coming loose. What prompted me to fix this was that it leaked so badly that it dripped onto the drive belt and the tractor wouldn't climb a hill.

I couldn't find all the photos, and for some reason, these were still on my photo bucket account.

I hope they helped.

Cheers,
bolillo

 

[vic3500]

Thats exactly what I was looking for! Thanks for going through the effort of of reposting those pics. That's what makes this a great forum!

 

[Whirly]

I do not know how to edit my photo address so it shows again in my original post. There's a time limit on how long one can edit a post. Once that time expires, the thread's now the property of MyTractorForum.com, and I no longer have access to it. If that's not a 100% accurate assessment, it's close enough for the purpose of this thread.

What I did was to take off the factory drain plug, go to the local hardware store, and find a piece of 4 inch pipe and a 90° elbow. I had wanted to get a petcock, but the brass ones were 10.00 - 14.00 dollars if I remember correctly.



u did get the drippin oil away from the belt..... BUT Y not stop the drippin too


that yellow part u reused will leak oil...I install a plug in all of my elbows.....or put another nipple in it with a cap on the bottom end..

BTW....u did use real expensive pipe fittings.... u could have gone with black iron or galvanized pipe

 

[swatara_gap]

I do not know how to edit my photo address so it shows again in my original post. There's a time limit on how long one can edit a post. Once that time expires, the thread's now the property of MyTractorForum.com, and I no longer have access to it. If that's not a 100% accurate assessment, it's close enough for the purpose of this thread.

What I did was to take off the factory drain plug, go to the local hardware store, and find a piece of 4 inch pipe and a 90° elbow. I had wanted to get a petcock, but the brass ones were 10.00 - 14.00 dollars if I remember correctly.



u did get the drippin oil away from the belt..... BUT Y not stop the drippin too


that yellow part u reused will leak oil...I install a plug in all of my elbows.....or put another nipple in it with a cap on the bottom end..

BTW....u did use real expensive pipe fittings.... u could have gone with black iron or galvanized pipe

The "yellow part" wasn't leaking. The yellow petcock worked perfectly. The reason it would leak was due to it vibrating loose, unthreading itself, and presto, oil leaked around the threading. I tried Teflon tape. I took off the starter and gave it a proper tightening, but it still came undone.

I'll make the fix as plain and direct as I can. Before the modification, it leaked oil past the threads of the petcock. After the modification, it no longer loses any oil from the crankcase. On top of that, my oil changes are no longer messy.

In post #17, I noted why I used stainless steel. I had to use what they had on the shelf, so there was no galvanized or black iron. If I'd have had junk lying about like we did in our heyday motor head drag racing / hillbilly 1 ton 4x4 days, I wouldn't have had to buy it because it would have been on hand. Sadly, since the plant closed, I can no longer afford that lifestyle, so I now have to buy everything I need. As it stood, all the local Ace in rural Pennsylvania had was the stainless steel. Moreover, unlike most Americans, I will purchase an item regardless of the price that is made in the USA over imported items. I am the son of a Union steel and garment worker who himself worked in a refractory plant and the three of us lost our jobs due to the buying habits of our fellow countrymen. One of the parts, the 90°, was made in the USA along with the oil filter. Additionally, I'm not going to drive 50 miles round trip to save a few dollars on black iron or galvanized. I have to buy what the local store has on its shelf. The local Ace is owned by a man/family a mile down the road from me. While I don't know them, I still consider this to be a local store. I will always shop at a local store over a big box national chain even if it means paying more. I will eat at a local pizza shop even if the service and food isn't as good as a national chain because I believe in keeping money within my township, county, state, and country in that order.

It's too bad they couldn't supply a decent draining system from the factory, but my countrymen seem to love buying cheap junk that's broke before they even open the bag/box, and most are too unmotivated, uninformed, or so propagandized to buy buy buy in our consumerism society, that they don't even bother changing the oil, so why should the manufacturer bother to put a proper drain system in? They'll just buy another new one in three to five years while the top % of the financial moguls laugh all the way to the Hamptons as the minions line their coffers.

None of the post I've quoted upset me. Somebody asked a question or pointed something out, and seemed to need further details to grasp what I re-posted in #17, but I failed to properly explain.

Cheers and thanks for reading,
bolillo

P/S You're welcome vic3500