Westerbeke Oil Drain Hose: "what the..."

[Jim Walsh]

I remove the cap and stick the hose into a half gallon milk jug, now using the bilge access opening. Using the jug's handle, I tie a line from the jug to something in the cabin. Then I open the valve below the oil pan, and let it drain while I do something else.

I just changed the oil on my westerbeke 21A (new to me) and was not aware of a valve below the oil pan. I figured once you warmed up the engine and removed the cap on the end of the hose then that was enough. maybe that explains why I only got 2.5 gallons out of the engine? I will take a look at this when I get back to the boat. In the meantime can anyone out there confirm the valve and the oil capacity of the 21A? thanks.

https://www.westerbeke.com/operator's%2 ... manual.pdf

This Operators Manual should help. It appears the oil sump capacity is four quarts.

[Dean Abramson]

I remove the cap and stick the hose into a half gallon milk jug, now using the bilge access opening. Using the jug's handle, I tie a line from the jug to something in the cabin. Then I open the valve below the oil pan, and let it drain while I do something else.

I just changed the oil on my westerbeke 21A (new to me) and was not aware of a valve below the oil pan. I figured once you warmed up the engine and removed the cap on the end of the hose then that was enough. maybe that explains why I only got 2.5 gallons out of the engine? I will take a look at this when I get back to the boat. In the meantime can anyone out there confirm the valve and the oil capacity of the 21A? thanks.

gonesail, is that a typo? It's hard to believe that there could be 2.5 gallons of oil in the engine. Maybe quarts?

If you do have a valve on the pan, it must have been in the open position; otherwise no appreciable amount of oil would have come out, only what was in the hose.

My engine is a Universal; the Westerbeke may be different. I would be surprised if there were no valve, though; because then your engine oil is at the mercy of a mere hose, which could deteriorate, or be accidentally cut. In out case, if you look under there, the valve is quite obvious; it has a straight handle (like on a small bronze water-hose fitting) which turns 90 degrees.

I don't know the oil capacity of your engine. Good luck.

[John Stone]

http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing ... _pml&cb=PW Ben

Ben I sure am interested, but I cannot get that link to work

Tim
The link was posted in 2007. So probably taken down.

I never used to read any of this engine stuff....

[Jim Walsh]

I never used to read any of this engine stuff....

[gonesail]

is that a typo? It's hard to believe that there could be 2.5 gallons of oil in the engine. Maybe quarts?

yes .. quarts. but in comparison we have the yanmar 3GM (30 HP diesel) and it only holds 2.5 quarts of oil. I think the typo is westerbeke saying the 21A holds 4 quarts .. but I have contacted them to see what they have to say.

[gonesail]

after a few internet searches I have found that the westerbeke W21A is a marine version of the Mitsubishi K3D engine. so I did a search on the K3D engine oil capacity .. and lo and behold .. it is actually 2.6 quarts

[Cathy Monaghan]

We use one of these vacuum pumps.



And even it can't get every drop. So you just do the best you can.

[Bill Goldsmith]

I remove the cap and stick the hose into a half gallon milk jug, now using the bilge access opening. Using the jug's handle, I tie a line from the jug to something in the cabin. Then I open the valve below the oil pan, and let it drain while I do something else.

I just changed the oil on my westerbeke 21A (new to me) and was not aware of a valve below the oil pan. I figured once you warmed up the engine and removed the cap on the end of the hose then that was enough. maybe that explains why I only got 2.5 gallons out of the engine? I will take a look at this when I get back to the boat. In the meantime can anyone out there confirm the valve and the oil capacity of the 21A? thanks.

Are you sure you recovered 2.5 gallons of oil from a Westerbeke W21a? According to the Westerbeke Technical Manual for the W21a, the oil sump capacity is 3.6 quarts. https://www.westerbeke.com/technical%20 ... al_man.pdf

On my 21a I usually recover about 4.25 to 4.5 quarts of spent oil during a change. I purchased a brass fitting that attaches to the end of the oil drain hose, and then clamped that to a plastic tube that attaches to a hand vacuum pump like the one below. Works great.

[gonesail]

On my 21a I usually recover about 4.25 to 4.5 quarts of spent oil during a change. I purchased a brass fitting that attaches to the end of the oil drain hose, and then clamped that to a plastic tube that attaches to a hand vacuum pump like the one below.

thanks for the feedback. I was just using gravity to drain the oil thru the hose into a container and got around 2.5 quarts including what was in the oil filter. looks like I need to use a manual pump with brass fitting to do the job right. Alan