Raptor SD Oil Change

You guys all do as you please, however, you can change the oil filter and leave the oil in the engine and add oil to bring it back to the correct operating level.

Here in lies what you are all doing to your engines. The oil filter becomes contaminated and no longer capable of cleaning the oil. If the oil has carbons, metal fragments and you drain the oil in a horizontal plane such as your mower engines, you will not remove all the fragments, unused fuel, carbons metal contaminants the filter will need to capture at some point.

However, that is NOT going to happen if the filter is not clean enough to capture all those contaminates. The filter is at its best the first 10 minutes and from about that time or even less, it is then fighting an uphill battle to do the job of defending the engine from the contaminates flowing thru the oil.

While I was in the machine shop business I loved all you guys that didn't change the filters often. You kept my machine shop very busy grinding crankshafts, boring cylinders, etc. from all the seriously bad engine oil maintenance I'm reading here.

Change your filters if you don't change the oil.

Have a glorious day.

When I change the filter every time I fill the oil filter then pour the excess back into engine. It is not much. Then put filter on and wipe up the mess.

You're doing it correctly.

My family was in the petroleum business for 5 decades. Owned many other businesses at the same time. All of our businesses required the usage of lubrication materials and filters from oil, to hydraulic, fuel, air, etc. Filters are the first line of defense for your engines. The oil will always enter the filter before leaving the filter for the bearing surfaces and cylinders. Oil is the lubricant, but the filter is your military fighting off all the invaders that want to put your engines, hydraulics intake, etc. into harm's way.

My motto is, do it right the first time, less consequences in the long term.

Just my $0.02 here on this subject of "oil & filter changes",

Ever time I change the oil on an engine, regardless of engine size (cars, trucks, tractors, riding mowers, push mower, etc.) I make it a point to change the oil filter as well (I even change the air filter at the same time too).
The oil filter is there for a specific reason as others have already stated, to remove foreign deposits, etc. to keep the oil as clean as possible. I have always done so and will continue to do so as long as I'm changing the oil on any engine with an oil filter.

It just makes common sense to replace the oil filter when changing the oil. Because the "used oil filter" will contain foreign deposits, etc. and if it is left on the engine, when pouring in the new oil it will definitely become contaminated when it enters the "used oil filter".

Now I'm a firm believer on following the original owners manual on many things (cars, trucks, riding mowers, etc.) but if the manual is instructing you to leave the oil filter on when changing the oil and your questioning and want confirmation on it then might I strongly suggest that you contact the manufacturer directly by either phone or email to get a more direct answer to your question(s)? I recently did this on my new Hustler Raptor on a question I had and got a response back to confirm my question & answer.

Ultimately the choice is yours and yours alone on what you want to do but I know for a fact that, regardless of what the manual says, that would be for me one rare time that I would not follow the instructions and replace the oil filter when changing the oil on your riding mower. Believe me, if you do change it, you definitely won't hurt your engine, as a matter of fact you'll help prolong the engines life.

Good Luck on your decision.

I have been changing my filter every other oil change for over 20 years.
Running 4 mowers now with over 2000 hours. One has over 3000 hours.
So I will continue to do as I have as it works.

Cars,

To be honest, the time it takes a pro to attain their 50 hours is usually in a week or even a month. Fifty hours on oil is no big deal. The time isn't a problem other than the amount of unspent fuel and the hydro-carbons and ash build up within the oil over time. You could probably run a month or more without changing oil. I'd change the filter and keep running the oil in your case rather than the other way round.

On my race cars I changed the filter and two quarts of oil after each 4 second run. I tried more than once changing on the second run. Each time, that cost me an additional 10 grand and that was twenty years ago, those parts are a bunch higher today. Oil filters do ten times the work people are giving them credit for.

However, whatever works for you, I'd keep doing it.

Max

mhavanti said:

Cars, To be honest, the time it takes a pro to attain their 50 hours is usually in a week or even a month. Fifty hours on oil is no big deal. The time isn't a problem other than the amount of unspent fuel and the hydro-carbons and ash build up within the oil over time. You could probably run a month or more without changing oil. I'd change the filter and keep running the oil in your case rather than the other way round. On my race cars I changed the filter and two quarts of oil after each 4 second run. I tried more than once changing on the second run. Each time, that cost me an additional 10 grand and that was twenty years ago, those parts are a bunch higher today. Oil filters do ten times the work people are giving them credit for. However, whatever works for you, I'd keep doing it. Max

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I have one mower that I have not changed the oil in 326 hours. All my mowers run the same engine. So this is kinda a test. Oil is as brown as it was when I put it in. Changed filter at 150 hours. Cut it open and it was clean. I run wix and Napa gold filters.
On my dirt late model I change both oil filters and oil every week. Cheap insurance for a $30.000 engine.

The first time I changed the oil, I did the oil and filter. I didn't fill the filter with oil because a horizontal mounted oil filter will just spill almost all of the oil out anyway. The last time (2nd oil change) I just changed the oil and didn't do the filter. I figure I'll just stick with what the MFG recommends. On any other vehicle I change the oil and filter, and always fill the filter with oil.

My guess is, the manual is miss-marked. I've never seen any manufacturer state not changing an oil filter each time you change the oil. Hydraulics isn't as important to change the filters as often, engines, yes!

My Yamaha motorcycle says every other oil change too.... and the engine oil services the transmission besides the engine!