Amateur DIY

Boat engines are notoriously difficult when it comes to oil changes. The inability to access the bottom of the engine makes it practically impossible to drain the oil.

This problem isn’t specific to boats alone. More than a few small engines have oil drain plugs that aren’t exactly in convenient locations. In some cases, even if the drain plug is accessible, the ability to drain the oil into a container is difficult or messy.

That’s where the oil extractor pump comes in.

An oil extractor pump is kind of like a sump pump for oil. It’s designed to suction hot oil through a small opening and drain it into a container.

There are two kinds of oil extractor pumps, manual and electric.

The manual pump requires that you continually pump the device to keep the oil flow moving. It requires effort, but they’re great when you don’t have a power source available.

Electric pumps are far more convenient, but require a little extra care. You can’t pump water or other non-lubricating liquids through them, as the pump components often require lubrication from the medium that is being pumped (the oil).

Removing Oil with the Extractor Pump

The process is fairly simple, but there are a few things to be aware of.

1. When pushing the suction tube down through the oil fill port, you might be surprised to find that the deeper you go, the less oil you are extracting. Try moving the suction tub up from the bottom until you start sucking oil.
2. When you remove your oil filter, you might be able to suck up a bit more oil through the oil filter opening.
3. The oil should be warm. Run your engine before trying to pump the oil.
4. Have a rag handy. As long as you’ve placed the drain tube into a large enough bucket and are keeping an eye on it, this process is pretty clean. But you never know!
5. Place the pump higher than the drain contain/bucket if possible. It reduces the possibility of spillage when you’re done.

The short video below demonstrates how to use the extractor pump on a jet boat engine. The process worked flawlessly. The pump seen in the video was purchased for under $20 on Amazon.