I’ve been working off a piece of cardboard for decades… why change now.

The attack of the 5.9

On my racecars and tow truck I usually change the oil at the track, they have oil drums and it is easy.

My daily driver I do in my garage and take the oil with me to track next race.

Banjo, this is the pump I use. Had it for years....handy little thing it is!

https://www.skf.com/mityvac/pr...id-evacuators/mv7300

And this is the valve I have:

https://www.fumotousa.com/all-products/f101n.html

It says it's not meant for low ground clearance, but where my drain plug is at is flush with the bottom of the pan, and wouldn't hit even if I didn't have a belly pan. Bottom of my pan is about an inch or so above the frame rails and there are two diagonals that run under the belly pan.


FYI, I change the oil in ALL my vehicles, which includes my dragster, truck, car, and atv. Also do all repairs, services, and updates like eco reprograms, flashes, etc.....I even do my own tire work....but that sucks.....hate it......

I'm fortunate to have a nice shop (for me) with a lift. So oil changes and tire rotations are kind of enjoyable and satisfying. Plus I don't have to coordinate time and transportation with someone to do it for me. I have a drum in the shop for used oil and use the forks to load it when it is full. Did the oil and coolant in the pusher last week and that is the most physical of all the maintenance as a rule. The tractor obviously is a service on the floor item as well.
I have never done the sucker thing but I could see it being a time and effort saver as opposed to laying on the floor.

I get why Ed doesn't change his own oil. Probably if I lived back there I would do the same. However, after having a bad experience with the local dealer on the wife's vehicle I decided that I would change it also. I already do my trucks and lawnmower and such.

It's not too much of a pain, the big plastic container I bought at O'Reilly's Auto Parts works like a champ and I just haul it to them and they recycle.

quote:

Bob, life is too short to be wasting time doing shyt like that. Relax, enjoy life a little more. I haven’t changed the oil on my daily drivers in 3 decades! My cars still under warranty go to the dealer, my truck goes to Joe L. When I had a boat, didn’t do the oil change on that either. I bought the boat new and for fun, not to work on it.

It's just what I do Ed, I couldn't do it any other way. As I mentioned it's FAR less stressful for me to just do it myself than coordinate a time and place to have it done. I have a lift at home and I can change any of my cars oil in 10 minutes or less, at my leasure.

I use one of THESE (for years) to change transmission, front/ rear diffs, bleed brakes and anything fluid that needs to be removed from a device. Only requires several pumps and will remove a great amount of fluid. Easy to empty.

quote:

Originally posted by TD3550:
The attack of the 5.9

I just had to put that up. look close, looks like right into the eyeball. lol

I just did all the maintenance on my motorhome. Eight filters and 12 gallons of oil. I'm in the industry though, so it's not hard for me to deal with it. Also put a new OEM starter(expensive af) on my Onan 12.5 generator. Not real bad to do either.

I am not too worried about what the checkbook racer says.

Thanks Colorado, I ordered one and will give it a try.

Changing my own oil is more of a convenience to me. I don't have to schedule appointments or wait in lines.

The day i will never forget. My DA business partner decides to switch out a mechanic on finishing an in frame on a 12.7 Detroit. Some how, some way the *** drain plug was not tightened correctly. Driver calls 2 days later. Oil light came on. Truck shut off. Had to be towed 300 miles back to the shop. Drain plug "GONE". We hadn't even been paid yet for it being an account.Man *** hit the fan. I screamed at him never pull a stunt like that switching a guy Out on a job like that.

In years past, i have had 2 service calls on commercial passenger buses. No drain plug. GONE.

Says another broke dyck with another cut up shyt box.

quote:

Originally posted by HS professor:
I like to see the magnet on the drain plug personally.

X2. I caught a failing timing chain this way. Found a piece on the magnetic drain plug. Saved me a bunch of money and time!

I got one for you Sam. At the end of my first enlistment of the Corps, I was too short to deploy so they attached me and a couple other grunts to a motor t unit. We were assigned to the shop to help with the CARC repainting program since we'd just gotten back from Desert Storm. Well, just after we got there they got a new kid in, fresh out of school. Gave him a 2 1/2 ton to do an oil change on. He'd never worked on one and asked how much oil did it hold. The section leader told him to "fill it up". Which of course he did...ALL THE WAY UP...keep in mind the filler cap was on the valve cover.......we were on the other side of the shop when he tried to start it. All we heard was a loud thunk and a "gooosh"! Oil was EVERYWHERE! Blew the gaskets out of the valve covers and partially separated the oil pan from the engine. We laughed so hard we nearly passed out!! 24 volt starting system with a gear reduction starter sure has a lot of torque! Hahahhahahah!

"Fill it to the Cap.BOOM. oil pan separation. What he put in there? 30 gallons?
I have stories you would laugh you're --- off.

Ex partner hires this guy. A little on the heavy side. About 300.. He sends him on an air drier problem for a bypass to get the driver down the road. One of the AD driers. Mid frame next to the trans. Here we get a call. I'm stuck under the truck and can't get out. Went out there, You have to be *** me. He hooked himself on i think
either the tank straps or something else. We had to use the 20 TN and raise the truck. I knew he felt terrible. Kept on apologizing.. Told him don't worry about it.Your other boss here got stuck too. We laughed OAO's off.

Then the other one. We did a lot of rail calls at BNSF. 2AM. call comes in. Guy picking up doubles at the rail.. We located him in the yard. The 5th wheel is completely gone as in "Left the Area". Come to find out him pulling into the rail yard crossed a rail spur hard and off it came. He never new it left and landed in the grass.
It was one of the older 5 units with the manual pins on both sides. Was never pinned when he left the domicile.We found it. Took 3 of us to load it back on the deck. Heavy ***. Thank God it didn't come off on the road when he was Bob tailing.
complete 5th wheel

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TD3550,

I change the oil in everything I own , from Lawnmowers, harleys, race cars. 3 new cars (still under warranty ).. but then again for the last 43 years up untill this past season i've been building my own race engines, still do my transmissions as well so I guess I'm not normal.. I think maybe I just dont trust anyone else to do it ...

I take my daily drivers to the Ford dealer I used to work at. It always gets change by the same tech guy and he is a racer also.(Well drag bikes) He usually does not change oil but 27.00 to the dealer and I take care of him 20.00 and everybodys happy. Now I do change oil in the race cars and the 8 gallons in the motorhome. Then I pour the old oil in 5 gallon containers also supplied by the Ford dealer and give the used oil to them. Do not trust motorhome dealers to work on my stuff. Motorhome dealers need to pay those employees triple what they get paid and quit complaining they can't hire people. They charge 175.00-250.00 door rate hour and pay those guys very little of it.

yeah I use fluid extractors quite a bit.

We have two vehicles now, down from four. My 93 mustang (2.3L) I stuff the tube down it's dipstick tube as far as it'll go and turn the valve on, sucks 5 quarts out in about 10 minutes. Change the filter, add new oil, done. On day I took the drain plug out after extracting the oil. It was bone dry. Stuck the tube down the dipstick and the end of the tube was right at the drain bolt hole. If I had pushed a little further it'd have pushed the extractor tube out of the drain hole.

Other car, won't get it all out. Tried a couple times. The shape of the engine is such that the tube won't reach the bottom, gets a couple quarts out and that's it.

Use it all the time on lawn mowers and side-by-side atv's, and I mean all the time. Originally had purchased the mityvac 7300 version which is a plastic tank and holds 8 quarts roughly. I'd fill it daily sometimes 2-4 times a day during busy season. I ended up modifying an 8 gal air tank with a couple of ball valves and a 1/2" pipe to the bottom for a pressure drain, and I use it almost exclusively now. I put it on wheels so when it's full I just put about 20 psi air pressure in it, close the valves, then wheel it over to the tote and drain it. Slick setup saves me TONS of time especially on mowers. The deal on the mowers is that I can stick the tube into the engine, let it suck the oil out and while it's sucking I can sharpen the blades and change the fuel and air filters. A service used to take about an hour, now about 15 minutes-on the same mower. So it saves the customer too.

another side benefit is that once you learn which equipment will suck all the oil out of, you don't loosen those drain bolts. So there is a lot less chance of stripping them, leaving them loose, etc. This is a big deal on mowers considering a lot of them have this piece of junk plastic "no tools required" drain system which rarely works as designed. So when customer comes back a year later and says you didn't tighten my drain plug, you can honestly say "I didn't touch your drain plug".

Outboard motors, big deal there too. Most of the 4 strokes have a drain on the motor leg and when you take it out, oil runs all over the foot, prop, around the prop, exhaust, gets in the prop, just a mess. There's ways to prevent it but it's time consuming. Fluid extractor to the rescue. Stuff the tube in the dipstick hole let it suck change filter done, zero mess, less oily rags, less oil dry to dispose of, saves you time money and customer aggravation. Nothing more aggravating for a boat customer who might have a $100,000+ boat, to leave the shop feeling good about service, to get all the way home to see some oil dripping out of the foot. Automatically that customer has lost confidence in your shop. Then you get to explain to him why it's dripping oil. BTDT!