Oil Filter O-ring Blowing out BEWARE

[zx670]

Had a scare today, doing some tuning on the lake and on a run I notice a power drop and the engine shuts down, my mind is racing with all the horrible things that could be wrong, I stop and notice a large amount of oil leaking out of my sled and I really start to wonder wtf happened! cant tell where the leak is as oil is all over the place. I tow the sled back and start diggin into it, cant find anything, check comp and all is good,,leak down etc. so I finally fill up the system and fire it up to find the leak, turns out the o-ring on the K&N filter blew out, never had this happen before but lesson learned these things need to be tight when installed! thank god for yamaha's engineering, the low oil sensor shut down the engine before any real damage happened.

 

[rxrider]

One question. Did you apply oil on the oil filter o-ring and the mating surface on the motor before installing the oil filter?

 

[zx670]

yup, always do, and since its a k&n I did tighten it with a wrench, I didn't crank on it but snugged it up what I thought was pretty tight.

 

[rxrider]

I have never used a wrench when installing the oil filter, always tightened down with my bare hands. Last time I checked the oil filter for leakage I got a little oil on my hands, a drop only but I better keep an eye on it. When checking it, the filter was as tight as I could get it with my bare hands. I have a wrench but it doesn't fit on top of the filter. I have a turbo and there is a oil adaptor plate underneat the filter to supply oil for the turbo.

 

[zx670]

yeah I have the adapter plate to feed oil to the turbo, and thinking about it I had just installed a .035" jet in the feed line, maybe that caused the pressure in the filter to be just a little higher than before to cause the o-ring to fail, hadnt had a problem before that.

 

[wantboost]

just wondering are the kn's any better than factory?

 

[zx670]

I can go on for a while about oil filters, they very alot in quality depending on manufaturer, oem yamaha filter is comparable to a wix (napa gold). paper filtering element and a purge valve that seats against a metal back to the element to keep dirt from flushing back into the engine every time its shut off, while they are good filters their flow and filtration quiality is by no means the best, k&n uses a synthetic membrane filter with a higher flow rating and traps much smaller micron particle sizes of dirt, mobile one is on the same lines as a k&n, Purlator is another good one, in fact tests the best of all we tested for filtering qaulity but at a sacrifice of flow, great for a daily driven car but not for a high rpm turboed engine.
WORST tested is FRAM! do not use it in anything you care about, purge valve seats againt a cardboard backer on the filter element on all their filters and everyone leaked and failed during testing!! meaning all the dirt the element caught is flushed back into the the oil pan every time the engine is shut off!

 

[gsxr]

Double check that the old o ring / gasket was not stuck there , and you added the new filter , then doubled up the o ring.
That is the only way the ring can blow out , it is in a groove , and unless the filter backs off 3-4 turns itcan't come out ! If it backed off that far the engine would be cooked , no oil !

 

[zx670]

pulled filter off when I got back, and no it wasnt double stacked, just the one o-ring, and K&n uses a semi square o-ring (which is harder to blow than a round o-ring) in the groove and the outer lip is captured by a metal lip, it blew out bast that too! filter was still tight enough it was hard to remove by hand so it hadnt loosened any considerbale amount either,

 

[superbeast]

ttt

 

[zx670]

I actually should have updated this, I thought the engine was fine but last weekend I took it out and in short order it developed a rod knock, took it apart and crank and 3 connecting rods were toast, in the process of a total rebuild, thrust surface is also scored heavy on one side so am in the middle of repairing that. turns out if the oil filter has a problem since yamaha's fail safe that kills the engine is volume and not pressure it takes a while for the volume to get low enough to shut the engine down, but if the leak is in the wrong place, ie oil filter, pressure is lost long before and the damage is already done.
I am going to wire in a hobbs switch and a delyaed time relay at the oil filter adapter plate, (delayed time relay is needed to allow engine to start before it has full pressure) so if for any reason pressure is lost it will kill the engine, easily bypassible if it malfunctions in the field.
sure wish yamaha would have done it, would have saved me $1500 in parts and 3 weeks lost riding. but atleast I have been able to to some needed updates, je lc pistons, ceramic coated pistons, cyl head, exhaust ports, valves, header, turbine housing, down pipe, and moly on the cams, followers, pistons, bearings, etc, that tech line products makes it cheap for a diy spray and bake system.
I hope the best for ya superbeast, hopefully you got it in time before damage was done

 

[zx670]

forgot to mention, thinking back, I think part of the problem why mine blew was when I put the filter on it was cold and o-ring was cold and stiff, once it warmed up and the o-ring was soft and pliable I bet it was loosy goosy and either blew out as a result or was loose enough the filter backed out a turn or so and blew. either way I will be sure have my engine and filter warm when I out it on next time and double check it to be safe!