oil change

[Tinna Gunnlaugsdottir]

we have a Cummins 6BT509 Marine engine in our boat. We just changed the oil, and only got 7,5 liters on it. We had expected it to take between 12 an 14 liters. Is this normal. (We did not change the oil filter).?

Topic

[firehoser75]

I agree. Do not overfill the oil. There is a good article under Tony’s Tips here on the site regarding oil in the Cummins 6BT(A) 5.9 L engine and how much oil to put in, remarking the dipstick, etc.
It sounds like you were not able to completely drain the engine. How did you “get the oil out”?
Did you drain from the lowest point (drain plug) either into a container or the bilge? Did you use a “built in” oil change pump? Or did you use a small pump to “suck it” out of the dipstick tube?
If the later, then you probably did not get much more than half of the old oil out????
Why would you put new oil in the engine and leave a dirty filter? Change the filter as well, they are not very expensive (certainly as boat costs go). To keep everything as clean as you can, put a plastic bag around the old filter when removing to catch leaks.

[Francis Valerio]

Do not over fill the oil. If this is the first time that you have changed oil on this engine make a note somewhere and record the amount of oil that you needed to fill it after the oil change.

Some engines when changing the oil will not empty completely because of how the engine is mounted and other factors as well.

There are also different capacity oil filters available as well that may affect the overall capacity on an oil change. I do not know what is available in your area regarding fleet-guard or oem type filters.

You can change the oil filter at any time on the 6BT 5.9 and it will not impact oil level as long as you fill the new oil filter with oil when installing it.

[Author]

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