Oil filter change - drip mitigation?

[tboydva]

Did my first oil change (a few hours before the 20 hour limit) on my DF60A. The maintenance manual suggests pushing shop towels in around the filter before loosening and removing it. I did that, but I still got quite a bit of oil dripping out - which went behind and of course dripped down along the powerhead. It wasn't horrible, but it did take a while to pull stuff off and wipe it up.

Given the creativity assembled here, has anyone determined what steps can be taken to minimize oil dripping everywhere when doing a filter change? The minimum amount of adjacent parts needing to be removed to get a rag fully under the filter to catch all the oil? There's a plastic shroud that looks like it could pretty easily be removed (I might try next time). Just checking to see if anyone has developed a system that catches the oil! I'm sure I'll care less at 100 hours, but right now it's so new and spotless, I'm having trouble letting it ride!

Thanks in advance.

[18pontoon]

Its not hard to remove the side cowling. I change the oil filter along with the low pressure fuel filter when doing maintenance with the cowling removed. Also gives you a chance to make sure everything looks alright.

Drain the oil first and give it a few minutes to allow the remnants to trickle down before changing filter. That will minimize the amount of oil left in the filter. Try a piece of cardboard under the filter to help catch drips. Shouldn't be too much oil dripping and the cardboard will soak quite a bit up.

[tboydva]

Thanks! Never thought of it, but the cardboard from a soda 12-pack is thin and could be "jacketed" below the filter (and drip the oil away). Knew somebody would have some good ideas!