That is what I said too. Alex from RCO tells me that this is a different kind of filter because of the special check valve in it, which will void the warranty if not used. He also told me that they teach them in the dealer training that it is a 500 hour filter. I guess this first change is just really a safety thing to get rid of any build crap that has busted loose in the engine. The user manual says change the oil every 250 so I may have misunderstood Alex. It does say the fuel filter is 500 hours.
Alex, if you are reading, (he says he reads here all the time, which is a good thing) please feel free to correct me if I mis understood.
I shudder to think that there may be stuff floating around in there and the hydros like that stuff that was falling out of my ceiling.....I think I'll cut mine open after changing to make sure. It looks like the filter are standard cases, I'm going to get the thread pitch , diameter and cross it to a cheap autozone filter and do a secondary cheap oil and filter 1 hour flush just to make sure before installing the new 50 buck one and good oil if I see anything in the filter when I cut it open.