The Lehams's in the GB 36 hold 18 quarts EACH, Have plenty on gallons jugs
to suckit in to. GREAT engines.

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 03:16:53 GMT, "Steve"
wrote:

The Lehams's in the GB 36 hold 18 quarts EACH, Have plenty on gallons jugs
to suckit in to. GREAT engines.

Most of us with big diesels buy our oil in 5 gallon pails. Keep the
old pails and after you've done a few changes you will have no need
for 1 gallon jugs.

Wayne.B wrote:
On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 03:16:53 GMT, "Steve"
wrote:

The Lehams's in the GB 36 hold 18 quarts EACH, Have plenty on gallons jugs
to suckit in to. GREAT engines.

Most of us with big diesels buy our oil in 5 gallon pails. Keep the
old pails and after you've done a few changes you will have no need
for 1 gallon jugs.

I like the gallon jugs, myself. Much easier to use if you ever need to
add a little oil beween changes. Also easier to get containers of waste
oil out of the engine room and off the boat with less risk of spilling
or wacking into something with a dirty oil bucket. When a friend
approaches on a cruise and says he's out of oil and needs to borrow a
gallon, it's easier to loan a gallon jug.

And, the plastic jugs make two really useful oil changing tools. If you
slice off the top of a jug just below the shoulder, you can turn the
top upside down and use it for a funnel. In engine rooms with limited
vetical clearance, that can account for a useful difference in height
when compared to a standard conical funnel. The lower portion of the
jug is now a square bucket with a handle on the side- and is exactly
the perfect size for catching a screw on oil filter and the associated
mess when it's removed.

On 20 Dec 2006 22:31:36 -0800, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:


Wayne.B wrote:


Most of us with big diesels buy our oil in 5 gallon pails. Keep the
old pails and after you've done a few changes you will have no need
for 1 gallon jugs.

I like the gallon jugs, myself. Much easier to use if you ever need to
add a little oil beween changes. Also easier to get containers of waste
oil out of the engine room and off the boat with less risk of spilling
or wacking into something with a dirty oil bucket. When a friend
approaches on a cruise and says he's out of oil and needs to borrow a
gallon, it's easier to loan a gallon jug.

And, the plastic jugs make two really useful oil changing tools. If you
slice off the top of a jug just below the shoulder, you can turn the
top upside down and use it for a funnel. In engine rooms with limited
vetical clearance, that can account for a useful difference in height
when compared to a standard conical funnel. The lower portion of the
jug is now a square bucket with a handle on the side- and is exactly
the perfect size for catching a screw on oil filter and the associated
mess when it's removed.

I understand your point but my setup is a little different. NAPA
sells a lever action pump which converts a 5 gallon pail into a
dispenser. I leave that in the engine room for topping off and doling
out small quantities. It is very convenient.

The boat came with a 12 volt reversible oil change pump which is
valved to both engines and both generators through a manifold
arrangement. It takes less than 5 minutes to pump the old oil from
each engine into 5 gallon pails. After changing the oil filters (and
topping them off with the manual pump), it is easy to reverse the
electric pump, stick the hose extention into fresh 5 gallon pails and
fill the engines back up. No lifting/pouring, and very fast.

When we were looking at Hatteras 53s a few years back this seemed to
be a very common configuration. Now that I've practiced the routine a
few times I can change both engines and both generators (15+ gallons)
in less than 2 hours. Most of that time is in the filter changes
which is still a PITA.

I remain amazed at the amount of lube oil wasted by diesel owners. Guys,
filter the oil and add it back into your fuel tanks. Helps you, helps the
environment, helps your engines, saves the labor of removing the old oil,
saves your $$$ by off setting the cost of say 4 gallons of diesel and
eliminating any oil disposal fee you may be paying.

RACOR has a system or you can plumb the on board oil change piping to allow
this to be done automatically.

Only caveat is not to use oil contaminated by coolant. This does not void
the engine warranties of the main line diesel manufacturers.

Many fleet operations do this and have been doing so for well over 20 years.

Now come the flames, no?

Butch
"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On 20 Dec 2006 22:31:36 -0800, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:


Wayne.B wrote:


Most of us with big diesels buy our oil in 5 gallon pails. Keep the
old pails and after you've done a few changes you will have no need
for 1 gallon jugs.

I like the gallon jugs, myself. Much easier to use if you ever need to
add a little oil beween changes. Also easier to get containers of waste
oil out of the engine room and off the boat with less risk of spilling
or wacking into something with a dirty oil bucket. When a friend
approaches on a cruise and says he's out of oil and needs to borrow a
gallon, it's easier to loan a gallon jug.

And, the plastic jugs make two really useful oil changing tools. If you
slice off the top of a jug just below the shoulder, you can turn the
top upside down and use it for a funnel. In engine rooms with limited
vetical clearance, that can account for a useful difference in height
when compared to a standard conical funnel. The lower portion of the
jug is now a square bucket with a handle on the side- and is exactly
the perfect size for catching a screw on oil filter and the associated
mess when it's removed.

I understand your point but my setup is a little different. NAPA
sells a lever action pump which converts a 5 gallon pail into a
dispenser. I leave that in the engine room for topping off and doling
out small quantities. It is very convenient.

The boat came with a 12 volt reversible oil change pump which is
valved to both engines and both generators through a manifold
arrangement. It takes less than 5 minutes to pump the old oil from
each engine into 5 gallon pails. After changing the oil filters (and
topping them off with the manual pump), it is easy to reverse the
electric pump, stick the hose extention into fresh 5 gallon pails and
fill the engines back up. No lifting/pouring, and very fast.

When we were looking at Hatteras 53s a few years back this seemed to
be a very common configuration. Now that I've practiced the routine a
few times I can change both engines and both generators (15+ gallons)
in less than 2 hours. Most of that time is in the filter changes
which is still a PITA.

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:10:52 GMT, "Butch Davis"
wrote:

Now come the flames, no?

No, not from me. It's an emotional thing.

After spending over two years getting my tanks and fuel halfway clean
to the point where I'm no longer clogging filters every 10 hours or
so, I'm very reluctant to rock the boat, so to speak.

Fortunately used oil is easy/free to recycle around here and I'm
confident that it gets put to some useful purpose. The cost of diesel
fuel saved is really pocket change in the grand scheme of things.

Agree that the cost of diesel saved is miniscule though it can add up over
the years.

I guess that on the typical pleasure boat the biggest saving is in effort
and perhaps mess. Lugging around five gallon cans of used oil from the
engine room through the salon (or ?) to the finger pier to the main pier
yada, yada could get tiresome.

On towboats and larger, however the overall labor, disposal, etc. savings
can be considerable. Those EMDs, KTAs, Cats, FBM, etc. larger diesels hold
considerable oil in the crankcases. 55 gallon drums are the oil containers
of choice on those big boys.

Butch
"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:10:52 GMT, "Butch Davis"
wrote:

Now come the flames, no?

No, not from me. It's an emotional thing.

After spending over two years getting my tanks and fuel halfway clean
to the point where I'm no longer clogging filters every 10 hours or
so, I'm very reluctant to rock the boat, so to speak.

Fortunately used oil is easy/free to recycle around here and I'm
confident that it gets put to some useful purpose. The cost of diesel
fuel saved is really pocket change in the grand scheme of things.

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 21:39:02 GMT, "Butch Davis"
wrote:

On towboats and larger, however the overall labor, disposal, etc. savings
can be considerable. Those EMDs, KTAs, Cats, FBM, etc. larger diesels hold
considerable oil in the crankcases. 55 gallon drums are the oil containers
of choice on those big boys.

No doubt. I assume they are burning their used oil? Do they use the
Racor blender or something similar?

Wayne,

The Racor is essentially a hose, a pump, and a filter. On larger boats
they usually make up a system using a suitable pump, hard piping, ball
valves, check valves and a suitable filter (sometimes a duplex). This
allows them to use the same system to refill the crankcases from drums.

They burn the oil along with the fuel. The lube oil, BTW, acts as a tiny
fuel booster as it has more BTU content than DF-2, or so the big boys tell
me.

These boats also have twin generator sets one of which is always running.
However, the engines are so small that the oil is usually changed the old
fashioned way.

A point of interest is that the oil on the larger diesels is usually changed
based upon the recommendation of the oil analysis lab. Most engine oil is
changed much more often than nesessary if based upon a set number of hours,
miles or days.

Butch
"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 21:39:02 GMT, "Butch Davis"
wrote:

On towboats and larger, however the overall labor, disposal, etc. savings
can be considerable. Those EMDs, KTAs, Cats, FBM, etc. larger diesels
hold
considerable oil in the crankcases. 55 gallon drums are the oil
containers
of choice on those big boys.

No doubt. I assume they are burning their used oil? Do they use the
Racor blender or something similar?

On Fri, 22 Dec 2006 15:06:18 GMT, "Butch Davis"
wrote:

A point of interest is that the oil on the larger diesels is usually changed
based upon the recommendation of the oil analysis lab. Most engine oil is
changed much more often than nesessary if based upon a set number of hours,
miles or days.

That makes a lot of sense for engines that are running nearly
continuously. It only takes 4 days to get to 100 hours in that kind
of service. There are times when I will do 100 hours in a week, and
others when I won't do that in 6 months.