Draining Excavator Engine Oil: 250-hour Service PART 1

Changing the engine oil in your excavator ensures that it will operate at the optimal level. In addition, you want to remove the oil that may have large amounts of dirt or contaminants that could be impacting the machine. The following steps will cover changing the oil in a CAT 314E excavator. These steps may also cover some Hitachi and Volvo models.

Remove belly pan under this machine. Some machines allow you to reach up and remove the engine oil drain while others require the removal of the pan plate. There are 4 bolts that hold the belly pan on. Some machines have more bolts, such as 6. For this model, the belly pan has bolt holes that are slotted on one side. So you don’t have to take the two bolts completely out. You only have to loosen the other two bolts enough to slide out the belly plate. These slots are also found on some John Deere, Hitachi, and Volvo models.

You’ll need an empty bucket to catch the oil. It may take more than one bucket to catch all the draining oil, depending on the size, make and model of the excavator. So make sure to have enough empty buckets.

It has a ball valve with a small hose attached to it. Some machines just have a drain plug on the bottom. Be careful when removing a drain plug as the oil will come gushing out immediately. You want to have something ready to catch it. Place an empty bucket under the hose and open the valve. If the valve is more of a needle valve, you’ll need to crack it and loosen the valve by turning it several times.

As you loosen the valve, the oil will begin to drain. You can control the flow rate based on how much you loosen the valve. The more you unscrew it, the more oil will come out.