Wastin' Away in Filterlessville...

So, to the saga hinted at in my last post...  I need to change oil.  This is doable - they have diesel engine oil here.  I bought an old 20-L vegetable oil container for the waste oil.  Now all I need is a filter.

I have a Beta Marine engine; basically a marinized Kubota tractor engine.  Kubota - huge company.  Gotta be able to get a Beta Marine oil filter here, right?  Ha!  "We have OSK only."  Ok, can you cross-reference my filter?  "I am so sorry, we have to call our supplier."  Ok, Sparky, call your supplier.  "I am sorry, our supplier cannot supply that filter."  Ok, here's a WIX equivalent, a Fleetguard equivalent, a Fram equivalent...  "We don't have any way to cross reference your filters.  Can you bring the filter in so we can match it?"

No, I won't drain the oil, pull the old filter off, bring it around so that you guys can hold two filters up and say 'This is the one.'  (Reminds me of the joke about the diesel fitter.).  I'm not going down that road with a high probability of being left high and dry without an oil filter.

Next place:  "We only carry OSK."  Next place:  "We only carry OSK."  Sensing a trend here?  I don't know who OSK is (they're Malaysian) but they seem to have a monopoly on the entire town.

So I did what every desperate sailor would do and checked the internet myself.  There are a bunch of cross-referencing sites, some touting 'thousands' of matches.  Wanna take a bet how many of them have OSK filters?  That's right. - none.  None, zero, zip, nada.  I'm going WTF?

Ok, time to call in the big guns.  I emailed Beta Marine.  Got a polite reply directing me to a WIX equivalent with the helpful suggestion that I have the store cross-reference from there.  I sent an equally polite response stating that in Fiji, shops don't cross-reference anyfuckingthing.  They get on their phones and call somebody who may or may not know what they are doing.

Luckily, I found a small (I mean tiny) shop called 'Savusavu Spares' and a nice young lady who allowed that although all they carry now is OSK, they used to carry Fleetguard.  She made a call (of course) after taking a pic of my list of suitable equivalent oil filters.  And - lo and behold - I got a call this morning that my Fleetguard filter is in.  I'm going over as soon as the rain stops.  Forty bucks for a Fleetguard oil filter, and I'm happy to pay it.

Lesson for next time:  Pack multiple oil filters in luggage.

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