Removing oil filter housing MEP-003

[Crawdaddy]

Ever since I bought my MEP-003, I've had an oil seepage from the area of the oil filter. The seepage is not bad and doesn't occur when the set is off. It will leak just enough oil while running over a 1 hour period to cover the tray below the filter and the frame below the oil filter in oil. However, it's slightly annoying to know it's leaking and to clean it up every couple hours. From observing the set, I am fairly certain the leak is not coming from the oil filter can itself, but from the gasket between the oil filter adapter housing and the engine block. The housing is item 31 in the picture and the gasket I believe is leaking is 32.

I've pulled the adapter housing on a MEP-003 before on a machine that ended up being junk and I never got started. It involved pulling several bolts, removing the oil cooler lines, and somehow finagling the adapter through the metal plate at the blower end of the engine. Trying to make sure the gasket stays in the right place and making sure it doesn't get torn while trying to wrestle the adapter in place seems very difficult to nearly impossible. Am I missing something to the process that makes it tolerable? I haven't tried re-torquing the bolts for the housing. Could that possibly take care of the seepage? I will be switching to the Speddmon oil filter adapter to make oil changes easier in the future.

 

[cuad4u]

One of my 003A gens had a similar oil leak between the adaptor plate and the engine block. Tightening the three bolts the hold the plate to the engine block solved the problem. The bolts were loose. I hope your problem can be solved as easily.

 

[Crawdaddy]

Are the bolts supposed to be torqued to 20 ft-lbs or 47 ft-lbs? The oil filter bate (spelled like the TM) mounting screws call for 20, but there's also an oil base mounting screws that call for 47.

Should I take each bolt out fully when I try this and add some blue Loctite to the threads? Will I risk damage to the gasket if I pull them out one at a time?

 

[cuad4u]

Are the bolts supposed to be torqued to 20 ft-lbs or 47 ft-lbs? The oil filter bate (spelled like the TM) mounting screws call for 20, but there's also an oil base mounting screws that call for 47.

Should I take each bolt out fully when I try this and add some blue Loctite to the threads? Will I risk damage to the gasket if I pull them out one at a time?

I did not torque them to any specific ft/lbs. All I did was snug them up tight. I did not remove them. I just tightened them. As I remember two of the three were quite loose. I don't think it would hurt anything if you removed them one at a time and put a little blue Locktite on the threads and snugged them up. Once again I would not take all out at once. One at a time.