Oil filter pre fill

[Flipper775]

I’m sure this has been covered before. I just bought a 2026 3500 Cummins. Getting ready to do my first 500 mile oil change. Do I need to prefill the filter with oil and if so, how do I do that and how much?
Thanks in advance.

 

[HuskerRam]

Isn’t the filter a cartridge now? If so, no pre-filling option anymore.

 

[rzr6-4]

 

[06 Dodge]

I’m sure this has been covered before. I just bought a 2026 3500 Cummins. Getting ready to do my first 500 mile oil change. Do I need to prefill the filter with oil and if so, how do I do that and how much?
Thanks in advance.

Oil filters are cartridge and you will need 2 of them the best and cheapest place to buy them is at Genos Garage for $20.95 each for Fleetguard/Cummins oil filters or you can buy Mopar branded for $62.95: https://www.genosgarage.com/product/ram-fleetguard-oil-filter-cartridge-lf16453/oil-filters

 

[crash68]

Getting ready to do my first 500 mile oil change.

I think you're missing a zero in that mileage.

 

[Hagar1]

I think you're missing a zero in that mileage.

Yea, 500 is far too soon.

 

[MrBonez]

I’m sure this has been covered before. I just bought a 2026 3500 Cummins. Getting ready to do my first 500 mile oil change. Do I need to prefill the filter with oil and if so, how do I do that and how much?
Thanks in advance.

You don't "Have" to but that's the standard thing to do for a diesel engine.
if you have any doubts about it, just do it anyway.

Fill it up until it's almost completely full of oil and install it.
You will need to give the fluid level in it time to settle so you know where it really is as you fill it, but that only take a few seconds between pours.

 

[Kickboxer]

Don't bother prefilling, just change the filter and
fill with oil. Carry on.

 

[Theair98]

Better yet, do like I did and install a remote oil filter kit from Pacbrake. It was a booger to install in my cold garage, but my next oil change is gonna be sooooo EASY!!! And, I am going to put in a different drain assembly, so I don't have oil all over my sway bar, anymore. Not sure about your diesels, but the engineeres who did the re-design, should be drawn and quartered. Total BS design.

 

[MJCs18Diesel]

When in doubt, hold it and twirl it slowly as you first fill the filter cavity. My jeep v6 uses a smaller version. This filter cavity volume will count towards your quart count as you screw it in with the top.

 

[Gary Fields]

The location of the filter on my Hemi makes prefilling an extremely messy operation. It's like performing a tonsillectomy through the colon. In the 50 years I've been changing oil this is the worst filter I've had to get to, not even the Fords were close to being this inconvenient. The size of the Hemi's filter is less than the filters on my lawnmower. Anyone know of a decent sized filter to use on 5.7 Hemi?

 

[Aggie12]

If it's the 6.4 liter, I use the Royal Purple #20-500 in my '24 3500. You can check to see if it's the same threads as the 5.7 hemi - but it's about twice the length of the standard MOPAR filter.

I usually drape a short piece of aluminum foil to keep the oil off my sway bar, when I'm removing the old filter - you can bend it around to suit, and make a spout that takes it right to your pan. And because the oil filter is a horizontal mount, there's no way to install it, pre-filled. But I prefill mine to wet the element, let it soak for a few minutes, and then just sit the filter in the funnel to drain the oil out, before installing the filter. This might be a little OCD, but it doesn't really cost any extra time.

You can get filler funnels that have the same profile as the oil filler cap. They screw in / latch positively, so there's never any leakage at all. Very stable, and big enough to make the oil refill really easy, even with 5 qt jugs.

 

[Bob Horowski]

If you plan on doing any significant number of oil changes yourself the pac brake oil filter relocation kit is the way to go, once and done and your oil changes are no longer such a dreaded chore.