When you clean or change your air filter(s), does anybody put a thin coat of grease on the rubber gasket that seals the filter to the canister? Of course I'm not gonna say what I do until I get some opinions on why or why not... ... I know this post will stir up all sorts of controversy...:laugh Of course... maybe nobody will answer and I will be... Thanks, OCR...
No oil on air filters , only on my oil filters but maybe i will learn something today I dont beleive it would hurt if you did KMS
I think some manufacturers place some white lithium grease to prevent them from sticking from the factory.
Whats everbody think about blowing filters out with compressed air? I have heard its really bad for the filters, and that filter should be shaken out, or just buy a new one.
No, I've never put grease on air filter seals, or heard of it being done. I can't see that it would cause any problems but I also can't see any real reason for it, either. I always check the seals and none have ever failed. Compressed air for cleaning air filters is OK only at low pressure and do not point the nozzle directly at the filter. I did use compressed air for a while, but now I only ever tap the filters lightly to remove the dust. Rn'R.
Id rather replace then blow them out, if they have that much dust in them , much cheaper to replace filter than motor KMS
Nope, no grease near my air filters. Too much chance of it attacting dust and transferring to the inside of the housing. I always wipe out the inside with a damp rag and wash the cover before I install a new filter.
No reason for grease, I usually replace them, we used to send them out to be washed once or twice but I don't like to take the chance anymore. A new element lasts alot longer before the indicator comes up.
Yep, I am told no grease. And NEVER blow the filter out with compressor air. It only makes the dust more available to enter the engine. Throw the filter away and put in new!!!
No, never lubricate the seals or gaskets on air filters or the filter housings. It only attracts and retains dirt and you have a mess to clean up. Very bad idea! Technically, one should neither tap dirt out of air filters nor blow them out with compressed air. I have done both and I don't know for sure that I hurt anything. But, by the book, don't do it per the filter manufacturers recommendations. There is a good chance that you will cause some kind of damage and that might wind up costing you a bunch of bucks. I used hundreds of washed air filters over several years in all kinds of large earthmoving and mining equipment. Saved tons of money by doing so -- and never had a problem. I also had a strict engine oil sampling program going on and watched very closely for signs of dirt entry, but just never really had any trouble that could be laid to the washed filters. I only allowed three washings per filter, after that they were scrapped. I used reputable filter dealers that had decent wash facilities and a trained staff to do the cleaning and more importantly, inspection of the cleaned elements. I also did not used washed elements in machines that were still under manufacturers warranty. Never washed nor cleaned in any way the safety elements. Always used new. By the way, I always purchased good quality new outer filters to start with, they stand up to washing better than the cheap ones. Generally, I washed filters because I had anywhere from 25 to 250 machines or more on the project working double shift. If a guy only has one or a half dozen units, it likely isn't worth it. There is a lot of logistics and training involved to washing filters among your maintenance crew too. You have to be careful with the dirty ones so they don't get damaged, they have to be transported to the cleaning facility, then brought back and stored carefully in a clean environment till used. It can be a little complicated for the small operator.
I am in the no grease crowd, but I do blow out the filters. Only the outers though. Never blow out, clean, or do anything but replace with new the inner safetu filter. If you do get a small amount of damage to the primary filter when it is blown out, the inner will still keep it out of the engine. Some of our outer filter elements are pretty expensive, and on the occasions when you are plugging the filter daily, it makes sense to blow it out.
i do not grease the filter seal. but i do blow them out every day with about 140 psi. depending on the amount of dust sometime the get blown out 2 times a day. during the summer i only run my air filters 100 hours then i get new ones. i also send in oil samples with every oil change (250 hours) and have had no trouble. ps i run a cbi wood grinder, it has a cat 3412e engine making about 1050 hp it just rolled 7000 hours and has had No engine work done yet!
We blow out the air filters, but only if dusty. Anytime we are working around fire and smokey enviroment it just gets changed. If we do clean them out, its only one round. They say not to use greese on oil filters but i've used both(thin coat of oil or lil greese) and never had a problem. When with the fam biz we never sent any samples in but were VERY strict and through in our maintance. Oil changed between 200 and 250 hours and during that the air filters were changed, water filter and all fuel filters, checked the front idlears level, usually the rollers as well and the final drives. If at the shop even wash the oil cooler and radiator with a light spray garden hose. Some people used to ask us why we spent so much time on our machines in the winter, "You can't make any money with em sitting in the shop." Our reply was always "Its better to have the in the shop fixing and relacing during the snowy winter months than it is to be broke down in the summer when we HAVE to be moving." Maintance doesn't make you any money but it sure can save you alot. Trbo
Thinking back on this subject this morning with regard to excessive amounts of dirt collecting on the outer filter(s). If you are in a situation where there is a lot of dust or dirt blowing around and it's causing shortened filter life, then you ought to invest in one of the pre-cleaner devices that are available. These work in various ways to reject a considerable amount of the dirt flowing into the filter system without restricting induction air. There are several brands available and you need to check into what each one does and how it would best suit your application. I've used several over the years in slag and earthmoving or mining operations. Some worked better than others and some were expensive compared to what they actually accomplished. Note that any ad-on precleaner must be exceptionally well secured or it will find a way to fall off! They also need to be incorporated into your PM schedule as they need maintenance just like any other component. Factory pre-cleaners also need maintenance on a regular basis. I couldn't exactly say how many Cat pre-cleaners I've had to repair or replace, but it's been considerable. There are plastic inserts inside the cleaner housing that sometime break or fall out. They also melt and drip down plugging those below or getting onto the filter. The housings used to be prone to cracking, and how many here have seen some fat operator using the intake bonnet for a seat while he ate a twinky and smoked a faggot? They weren't made to support any weight like that and it can cause the pre-cleaner to bend or buckle and worse yet, leak. There are other options available too, such as moving the air intake one way or another or extending it by a matter of feet to get it out of the dust range. The last few years have seen a huge push by environmental and other agencies to pre-wet material and also keep surrounding work areas wet so as to keep free-blowing dust to a minimum. But we all know that it isn't always possible to keep dust down when disturbing rock and soil no matter what the inspector and his bosses whould like to believe. Lot's of folks think that the safety or inner filters will keep their engine safe if a leak develops in the outer or somewhere in between. That's true only to a certain extent. The safety's will trap the large stuff, but they do not have a lot of capacity and will plug quickly. They need to be changed on a regular basis too and, as I wrote before, don't blow them out or wash them in any way. Story:: At a slag operation in Detroit, we had several Cat D9H tractors pushing slag up into a pile that a Northwest crane with a magnet could reach to remove free steel and iron. Slag is exceptionally abrasive and heavy and it's dust is no different. We experienced very shortened undercarriage life and many times the air filters were sometimes changed twice a shift. The Maintenance Manager bought a precleaner made by Farr and had it installed on the hood of one 9 for a test. It was a big square box with a large filter inside, but it also used boost air from the turbo to sweep dust out of the filter housing through an exit pipe extending over the side of the hood. This pipe ended with a small rubber elbow that pointed down towards the tracks. After installation we gave it a try and it was my job to check on the operation of the thing on my shift and document how well it was doing. So I checked it several times a night, recording the vacuum readings and the operators opinion on tractor performence. It seemed to work pretty good and we no longer had to change the tractor filters as often. It did fall off a couple of times, being destroyed the first time and barely escaping destruction the 2nd. The 9's weren't the best ride in the world you know. One night when I looked at the thing I noticed that it had sand blasted the paint off a spot on the hood where it was discharging dirty air. The vent had gotten moved since being reinstalled and was now pointed straight down on the hood. I didn't give it much thought till a couple of nights later when I noticed that there was now a hole in the hood right under that rubber elbow. The next night the elbow itself had a hole straight out from the pipe. The slaggy air had acted just like a sand blaster and if any more proof was needed that showed the thing worked, there it was.
Been blowing out large primary air filters from the inside out carefully for 34 years now in all sorts of iron and NEVER have had any issues.You obviously have to watch your PSI so as not to rupture your pleats.Most, if not all operators and service manuals will back this up,along with washing them.I've never washed one for 2 reasons---you can't be certain it's dry inside and you want to get the rig back in service.As for lubey doobey,on some real tight installs like my '06 Dmax,I silicone the seals,saves a lot of wrestling and there's no danger of grease possibly getting into the intake and/or making a mess of things.
I have a backhoe loader ** 965 and it has two air filters, a big and a small one, they need to be replaced in the same time? in the case of the filter I have something like a bulb with electric power, what is that?
G'day sandu, We always replace the inner filter when we replace the outer filter. The inner filter is only a check filter in case the outer filter fails. Surfer-joe explains this quite extensively earlier on in this thread. In our situation we replace them every 12 months. Other members of the forum have different views on cleaning and replacing the filters so it really depends on your particular situation. I presume the light bulb may be for placing inside the filter then check the filter around the outside for holes in the element. If there are any, the light will shine through and then the filter should be discarded. Rn'R.
This is an Age Thing! When I was quite a bit younger It was a recommended (By Int. but could have been Deere ) service procedure to lightly coat gasket with grease- suppose to seal better and keep out dust. also keep gasket in place during assy.
The little bulb with electric power is likely the intake heater for the cold start system. The inner filter usually does not need replaced every time the outer one does. I usually go 2 or 3 times on the outer before the inner gets replaced.
Do it like Rocksn'Roses: I had some confusion with that my self. Some maintenance manuals recommend the light check... and I live in a somewhat cold climate area... so I'm also familiar with intake heaters too. But this is interesting too... from reading your post... it seems that you made a new one to clarify an issue from a previous post... Good job, Rn'R... maybe you provided the Support Forum with a little help...:thumbsup Take care, OCR
I've been in a few dusty climates and have always blown out the outer filters at least once. I've seen places where you had plugging twice a day. At fifty to a hundred bucks a unit and a secondary filter inside I figure the risk was worth it. I've never blown out an inner filter and used to depend on the color change of the paper to determine when to throw away both and put new in. If there was no inner filter I put one in or we only changed that filter with new. I did run into an old timer that provided a better way to tell when outers started leaking. He would install a new inner filter and then put a dab of grease on cap end. That way if dirt was getting through the outer some of it would hit the grease and stick. It only takes a glance to see the hairy splotch of dirt now there and you knew that it was time to change both. I've done that ever since and never had an issue. I agree with Surfer-Joe on the precleaners. We used to have a unit that had a spinner inside that worked real well. I think it was called a TurboII. They were about a hundred bucks a unit and extended filter life three to five times over running with out it.
The only time I greased the mating surfaces was in my dirt bike. other than that personally I would never intentionally compromise the factory engineered seal. All of my machines run quality air cleaners. I use Donaldson, Fleetguard, and CAT filters Exclusively. NO CHEEP FILTERS!!! If you have a good filter in a good housing installed by a proper mechanic with a head not Firmly planted in their rear. No reason to mess with factory engineering. Also I have restriction indicators on almost every piece of equipment that uses an air filter. The local truck supply used to have filter minders on the shelves out front but since they went out of business. All the other parts stores look at me like im insane when i ask for a restriction indicator and their "parts people" cant seem to find them in their catalogs. Anyone have a part number for them?
I've been wondering if any body would make a post about that old trick... and all you need is just a tiny film of grease for it to work. OCR
OK, I admit it. I have been known to put a light film of grease on the inner and I always check the mounting bracket in the intake tube for dust when I change the filters. I always change the filters before I actually see dust on the grease, but it is a good safety check. Whenever I buy a seconhand machine, nine times out of ten I will find dust in the intake tube and the filters will be five or more years old, which always amazes me that something so important is so neglected. Rn'R.
I have never heard of greasing nor have I ever done it. Though we do blow our air filters out with the air compressor.....on days when I push the silica sand all day I have to blow them out 2-3 times a day or they plug, rock trucks and the sand trucks blow out once a day.....trackhoes usually once every 3-4 days otherwise we'd putting out the money for a very large filter bill.