first time doing oil change on my own draining oil was easy......but even with oil filter wrench i am having trouble getting the oil filter off. is there something i need to loosen first. I thought it would be pretty easy considering location but i cant seem to turn it....I used the premium fram filter because they didnt have the kn in stock....thats all done but i have somne other things I want to get done soon including cleaning out the throttle body. before even attempting to take it apart i wanna know from yall who have done it, did yall buy a new gasket to avoid a leak or just try and used the old one? Any other tune up ideas yall would suggest to get rid of a rough idle other than changing out engine mounts. (toooo much money) I noticed that my gear shifting was really rough and was willing to try anything so i used the 10 dollar bottle of prolong tranny treatment it worked for a few days now back to how it used to be. I was very impressed in the change but it seems like it wore out kwik. any particular product you would suggest? I just replaced plugs and wires is there any way to determine if I need to change out distributor and cap?

 

somtimes the PLACES put the filters on really tight you may want to try hammering a screw driver through it and then turning the screw driver and make sure your turning it the right way

 

nope.. they just screw on.. if you've tried the filter wrench and can't get it off, then it's time to destroy the filter. use some bigass channellock pliers.. if that doesn't work, then get a screwdriver and a hammer. pound it through and use it as a handle to break it loose.


and remember when you put the new one on... coat the gasket in a layer of clean oil, then HAND TIGHTEN the filter. just get it snug. don't worry, it won't come off.

 

What kind of filter wrench do you have? If you are using that thin metal thing that wraps around it then you might wanna try that other type of wrench which is just a big wrench with sharp teeth that you squeeze together.

 

I tried the metal clasp thing but couldnt get it to work so I used hammer and screwdriver. I wonder if I bought the attachement that makes it possible to get it off with a ratchet would have worked? How many quarts on vg/ve 5 right? couldnt find it in chilton

 

combined post

 

I know K&N uses a 1" (IIRC) nut on the end of the filter. the filter is the same as the Napa gold. The worst time I've ever had taking a filter off was on the mustang when I first bought the car. I did the screw driver thing, but instead the screw driver sliced threw the filter like it was a tin can. after some coaxing I finally got it off, with about 1" to go before the filter would have been split in two pieces. Luckily both the VG and VE are very easy to get to and theirs plenty of room to play around with if neccessary.

 

4 1/8 with oil filter

Straight from the manual

 

I used the premium fram filter because they didnt have the kn in stock....thats all done but i ahve one more thing I want to get done soon and that is clean out the throttle body. before even attempting to take it apart i wanna know from yall who have done did yall buy a new gasket to avoid a leak or just try and used the old one? any other tune up ideas yall would suggest to get rid of a rough idle other than changing out engine mounts. (toooo much money) and another unrelated issued. i felt that my gear shifting was really rough willing to try anything so i used the 10 dollar bottle of prolong tranny treatment it worked for a few days now back to how it used to be. I was very impressed in the change but it seems like it wore out kwik. any particular product you would suggest?

 

combined post

 

I cleaned my throttle body just a few days ago. When I took it off the old gasket was in excellent shape. I probably could have and should have re-used it. But I already bought a new gasket so I wanted to use it. But holy crap what a JOB that was! I literally spent 2-3 hours trying to get the gasket off the intake manifold. I used Permatex Gasket Remover and let that soak in for a while and I ended up scraping off layer by layer of gasket with a razor blade. I had to keep respraying the gasket remover in between layers. Finally I got it all off, thank god!

So then I cleaned out the throttle body. A wholeee bunch of black crap came out and I ended up using the whole can of TB cleaner to clean it out. I used rags to clean this ring of black around the butterfly plates. Just make sure you park your car on an angle to help the TB cleaner run out.

Quite honestly, it didn't make the car idle that much smoother. I haven't had a tune up in a while either though(air filter, spark plugs, wires) so maybe that'll help the idle a bit more. It's definitely a little smoother though.

I'm glad I did it though, it was a good experience.

As for the tranny I think it's best to have it flushed at Jiffy Lube or something. Don't take my word for it though I heard that if you have high miles and you never changed your fluid it could actually kill the tranny. I think this is only if you have little metal particles in your fluid though, which indicates wear. But like I said don't take my word for it wait for someone smart to reply.

 

you contradicted yourself there

After my tuneup, engine was lot smoother while idling. did the usual plugs, wires, air filter

 

Hey I said it didn't idle that MUCH smoother, but it is a tiny bit lol

 

no he's okay a little smoother is less in quantitative measurement than "much smoother"

 

Ah, I think your rubber gasket is melted to the engine which is causing the filter to locked in tight. What you should do is go to BigK and get one of those Cap metal (not plastic made, has to be metal) oil filter socket NOT the strap ones and make sure your filter is able to slip into it nicely. Mine is Pennzoid made, costed me $4 bucks and it works terrific every time. I believed some other members mentioned getting the cap from the above, too. Anyway, once you have the metal cap ready, drive your car around for bit until the engine totally warmed up and I meant HOT. You want that rubber gasket to loosen up a bit, so make sure it gets MAD hot to a point where it could put a slight tinkling feel to your fingers if you touched it. Then grab the your metal cap filter socket, usually the center hole is 3/8" square, hook that to a 3/8" to 1/2" converter and attach it to a big *** braker bar. Now turn it with all of your mights. If that damn thing refused to move, then it's time for more action. Grab your braker bar and bring it to Home Depot, walk to the plumbing department and see which ever plumbing pipes goes around it so you could have an extension. Just buy one of those pipe and have the Home Depot guys cut them to your need. Now, back to work....drive that car again, til it's mad hot. Attach the extension pipe to breaker bar and continue with the steps above and brake it loose. Once you had that loosen, you'll see that your rubber gasket is totally busted, you might wanna get a knife or something and scrape that off. Whoever installed your old filter probably forgotten to lubricate the gasket before the installation and after the installation, the guy over tighten it which is not the right thing to do. Normally, as a rule of thumb, you lubricate the gasket, bring the filter in and turn it until you feel the gasket touches the bottom. STOP. Now get your metal cap and slap it onto the filter and turn that no more than 360 degree, I usually turned it to ~320 degree and it gets really tight. Well, that's my 2 cents and a little too verbose.

 

ummm, 1... there is no way in hell a filter will be that strong that you need a breaker bar to remove it. by that time, you'll end up twisting it into a little ball of metal before it breaks loose.

2. you're putting yours on WAY too tight also. as I said above, you should HAND TIGHTEN the filter. you should never need tools to install or remove it. put it on my hand until it seats on the gasket, then give it a quick twist by hand. simply snug. you should still be able to tighten it a little more by hand- but don't.

 

Ah damn it, Matt was right again. My bad, guys. I forgot this is only a filter not a suspension bolt.

 

I'm always right.. that's why I'm the Mod.

 

haha......lol

 

now this information i am about to share with you guys and especially for azmalu is really top secret. So dont go telling everyone you meet what i'm about to tell you











Righty tighty Lefty lossey

 

I was at costco about a month ago and bought the 3 pack of rubber strap wrenches. They work amazingly well to remove the oil filter. Just FYI.

Cheers,
Matthew

 

strap wrenches are your friend

 

Any body got any tomatoes to throw?