diy oil change on 04 tropical

[offduty]

I am going to attemp an oil change om rig this is my first rv so i am realy not that knowledgeable on what kind of oil and fuel filters to g et as well as air filter i have a 330 c-7 any advice or dos and

donts

[bdpreece]

In 04 cat switched the breather (slobber tube) to the side of the engine which caused the engine to blow oil out the slobber tube. They then issued an update to the manual stating that you should only install 17quarts of oil plus 2 for the filter for a total of 19 quarts. On my C7 350 I ran Delo 400 15W-40. I always purchased my filters from my local Freightliner dealer but if you have time the best prices are probably from the Filter Barn on the internet.

You may want to so a search on calibrating the dip stick just in case it has not been done on your engine.

[mbrandt1402]

I changed the oil and filters last spring right after purchasing our '04 TropiCal. I have an acquaintance on another forum that is an engineer for Cat at the engine factory (he looked up and sent me the dyno sheet for my engine serial number) and he advised that the Cat filters are superior to the average generic filter and not to scrimp. Rather than research the micron ratings of various filters, I just bought Cat filters from my local dealer.

My oil change was a comedy of errors. I pulled the rv into our driveway, which puts the rig somewhat nose-high. Draining the oil and changing the filters was easy enough, but I found that my add-oil tube does not have much slope to it, and the nose-high attitude in my driveway was severely limiting the rate at which I could add oil. I dumped the air suspension, blocked the front wheels VERY securely, released the parking brake and tested my blocks, reset the brakes and then raised the rear of the rig with the leveling jacks as high as I dared. The flow rate was still fairly slow, but much improved. Do the oil change on level ground so you can get the chassis nose-down when you are ready to add oil.

And speaking of adding oil, I was pouring from gallon oil containers, using a flip-top cap/spout with a short piece of hose attached to the spout. The cap/spout is also a ball valve, so I was feeling very much in control of the situation. What I quickly learned was that the spout was very easy to pop out of the cap base, and of course I discovered that (multiple times) while the jug of oil was inverted and inside the back end of the rig. Suffice it to say I'm now somewhat unconcerned about rust in the right rear of the TropiCal.

My approach this next year will be to modify the standard container cap with a Schrader valve (tire stem) and dispensing hose so that I can force oil out of the oil containers with air pressure. That has been my standard approach for adding gear oil to diffs and manual transmissions for years. It only looked like the TropiCal was going to be so straightforward that I wouldn't need that trick.

Have fun when it is time to change the air filter. That was a miserable task.

One last thing: the change interval (yearly) is such that using synthetic oil makes no sense. I used Chevron Delo of the appropriate weight. I caught it on sale at Costco, but it is reasonably priced at Walmart. The generator uses the same oil.