oil service

[kmohr3]

Can anyone give me some info on changing oil on the 3.5L motor? I would appreciate any pictures or diagrams of the filter/housing and also torque specs for the filter and drain plug.

Thanks, Karl

[kmohr3]

Also, does anyone know if the oil filter cap wrench for the housing is the same size as GM's older filters, like the PF-47, etc?

[kimbo99]

Torque per factory shop manual:
Drain plug: 15 ft-lb
oil filter hsg: 18 ft-lb

I use a FloTool #4 Super Graphite filter wrench to remove the filter hsg, works great. Pennzoil makes a similar metal wrench, I assume also #4 size (which would make it p/n 19804). I purchased at my local auto parts store.
FYI, you can remove the filter before draining the oil if you want. Only the oil in the filter cavity will drain.

[kmohr3]

Thanks for the info, Kimbo, BTW where did you get your FloTool? Also, did you get your shop manual from Helm?

[kimbo99]

I got FloTool from Kragen, about $5.

Yes, I bot factory shop manual from Helm. I like it, but wish the index was more comprehensive as there is always something I know is in manual but not in index (example: oil filter), would like it on cd with search capability.
I've bot 3 manuals (on cd) on EBAY, the first two were useless (one was by Mitchell), the one I have now sounds better from description, it claims search capability (EBAY #7920540955) for $25, but like the others i get errors during installation on WXP SP2. not sure if i can get to work.