Oil filter canister bolt torque?

R

Ricks56

Member
For those of you still using the original canister type oil filter, what do you torque the center bolt to? The shop manual calls for 25 ft-lbs and mine won't seal. I tightened it to 35 lbs and it held for a while then started leaking again. The bolt seems to loosen up after driving the car for an hour or so. I used the thin gasket that came with the Motorcraft filter element. Somewhere I read to torque the bolt to 50 ft lbs so that is what I did this morning. No leaks and I put the car up for the winter today. I guess next spring I'll see. I also used an o ring under the bolt head and it is not leaking there.
 
I guess not too many are using the canister filter any more. My main concern is that it was loosening up after driving. Maybe the rubber o ring under the bolt head has something to do with it? Not fun driving around worrying if all of a sudden the filter is going to start squirting oil out!
 
Yeah, I think I would shitcan the rubber o-ring and find the right compression washer for the through bolt. It's been a long time but it seems like I've seen copper ones.
 
I use the canister. The plate was a bit bent on one edge so I straightened it out and screwed it in place. Cleaned the hollow bolt and the inside of the canister. Placed one of the the o-rings that FRAM threw in the box (the wider one layed ou better) with grease to hold in place. Used the other smaller card(?) washers on the bolts head, placed the new element inside and screwed it in. Torqued it tight without lookin at the manuals for torque specs. All good, no leaks.
Is the canister all straigth? No dents? How about the plate?. A dent in the canister would cause the metal to receed at its tip/lip and might cause a leak.
Just guessin..
 
The canister looked fine and so did the plate. If I continue to have trouble with it loosening up next spring I'll try getting rid of the o ring on the bolt. I only used that because of internet advice (it's got to be true if it is on the internet!).
 
The tension for the bolt according to the good book is 20-25 ftlbs. The idea of an o ring is to help the bolt head seal to the top of the canister. The hole is usually concaved in and the o ring will help the bolt to seal better. You could use the o ring under the fibre washer that most of these units have on the bolt which will give double protection., between the fibre washer and the canister.
 
Did you clean the matching surfaces throughly? Arent there any old gaskets still stuck? Ya could maybe coat surfaces with a sealant.
 
Yes, everything was cleaned well with no old gaskets present. Like I said, the bolt appears to be loosening up; the day after I torqued it to 25 lbs it started leaking. I checked the torque and had to tighten it some more to get 25 lbs. I then torqued it to 35 lbs and after driving the car about an hour, I put it away, no leaks. The next morning (by the way, the air temp had dropped quite a bit- 60 degrees to 38 degrees), the oil started squirting out around the base of the canister when I started the car. Checked for 35 lbs of torque and had to tighten again to get the 35 lbs. It is now torqued to 50 lbs and waiting for next spring! Really not sure what is going on. It seems like it should be a simple thing to get the thing to seal. I really don't want to use sealants, especially on the block side. Thanks for the answers!
 
There are probably a couple of reasons why you are losing pressure/torque. The gasket may be squashing over time, the bolt is stretching and pretty soon will break. Over tightening may result in stripping the thread in the block nut, though you are more likely to snap the bolt. When I had the canister fitted I used to tighten it to what felt tight with correct sized ring spanner. I would suggest picking up and fitting a spare setup from a wrecking yard, to see if that leaks also. It could be that the system is leaking from behind the mounting pate and not the canister itself.
 
One thing I didn't mention is that the oil pressure runs about 70 lbs at 55mph, 35 lbs at idle once it's warmed up. Is it possible the pressure relief valve in the oil pump is not working correctly? That wouldn't explain the bolt loosening up though.
 
I am all for running an original canister type can if that is important to you, however this is an example of why the system was converted to the spin on setup in later years. Also the easily available variety of filters on the market. I would definately pursue the oil pump and pressure relief valve issue but would also get back to your original challenge of removing the oil filter baseplate. It will come off, but of course not easily since it may have been on there since the car rolled off the assembly line! then upgrade to the spin-on.

Seems I recall that there should be a copper washer under the big bolt in the canister, not rubber? And the canister had a thick hard paper gasket under it. Hard to recall, been about 40 years since I changed one like that.
 
I will probably try again next year to put a spin on conversion on it. I need to take it to a garage that has a lift and maybe better tools than I have to get to old base plate off. Thanks guys for all the answers and ideas!
 
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