Polaris Ranger TM (Part VIII) oil change

If you have mined this deeply into this archive you will realize that I have had some difficulty changing the oil on this vehicle. Today marked 250 hours of service, so an oil change was due. Things went a bit better than before.

Online I found a 2004 Ranger TM manual uploaded by the U.S. Army. It has proven more useful than the one I bought from the Polaris dealer, a 2005 manual.

In particular the Army PDF directed me to the other side of the Subaru/Robin engine for a drain plug located at the centre of the vehicle. Surely enough, a plumbing fitting is attached above a hole in the skid plate, tooled to take an Allen wrench. It’s larger than the Torqz wrench which removes the six screws which guard the dip stick. I dug through my socket set and found two nearly identical candidates. Neither had a label, but the rustier of the two fitted the plug.

I gained access to that area of the underbelly of the beast by running it up a pair of steel ramps I used to use for my truck. After I had the draining underway I realized that if I had backed it up the ramps, the oil would run the right way and there’d be nearly the same headroom underneath as the drain is almost exactly amidships. Next time I’ll do it that way.

I removed the filter without difficulty with my little chain wrench. Now I don’t want to anthropomophize a threaded tin can with some mesh in it, but there’s something about that particular oil filter that gets my goat. Last winter we had a battle royal, and this time no sooner had the thread cleared the shaft than it did its usual trick, leaping free of my fingers and hiding under the transmission. I decided to take control of the relationship by not caring about it. With fingers unsullied by crankcase oil I carefully manoevered the new filter out of its package, removed the cellophane seal, noted with appreciation the prelubricated o-ring and threads, and then gingerly wiggled it into the narrow space behind the engine and, wonder or wonders, even onto the the protruding threads. It tightened right up. What a difference having a little dust on one’s fingers makes instead of a coating of synthetic oil.

As usual I had drained the crankcase oil into one of my wife’s stainless steel pots. The oil looked pretty good for sixty-five hours of use, but I noticed a few specks of carbon on the bottom of the pan where they hadn’t been the last time. So much for skipping a filter change. From now on I’ll pay the $20. for the filter and do it right at 50 hours.

Further to the filter question, I downloaded from Subaru/Robin Industrial Engines the service manual for the 18 hp twin. They recommend 50 hour oil change intervals, but call for a filter change only every 200 hours. Strange, based upon what I have observed. As well, they make no mention of synthetic oil at all, appearing to prefer single grade lubricant like 30 oil, warning that the engine may use oil if you use multi-grade in hot weather. I haven’t noticed any oil consumption with the synthetic 0W-40 Polaris insists this engine must have.

Oh yes, the errant used filter: I ran the Ranger up a steep bank, teased it out from under its hiding place with a stick, discovered there’s no way to take it out the normal way if the new filter is in place, so I removed two screws from the bottom of the belt guard, folded it up enough to reach in, and nabbed the little sucker.

Come to think of it, I might be able to reach in that way with a fresh filter, too.

Next oil change will likely be in a snowbank, so I’ll keep you posted.

BTW: please feel free to provide advice on simple procedures here. Obviously I write better than I wrench.