mts

I try to use about a 50/50 mix, but tend to spill some on the change and if I end up using extra the extra quart is always 20w50......so I am probably just a touch more 20w50 than 10w30.

96PCarrera993mg

Job well done! Welcome to comedy central

Mike J

Don't think it's that rare - many people on this list do that and more ... and I did it all with with jackstands for the first 18 years of 911 ownership. Its a bit more up and down, but it can be done safely and quickly.

cheers,

Mike

race911

Maybe, maybe not. Consider how "long" it takes to change oil on a 356.

pp000830

Very Funny!

JB 911

Mts, your post really made me laugh.


I know you posted it a long time back, but I hunted it down to share my first experience changing the oil. Your post is not actually too hard to find if you can remember to include the words 'live rooster' in your search - since they aren't required for that many DIY's


Wanted to ad my experience this past weekend. Maybe we should rename this thread confessions of your first oil change!


To make SURE I wouldn't have any problems, I made sure to read every post of changing oil on this site and some others. Twice. And I will add I used Robins DIY as my guide.


The first weekend - yeah you read that right this was a TWO weekender... I jacked up half the car on my brand new Sears jack and jackstands and very quickly determined this was not a safe set up. The whole car was wobbly. OK. Back to RL. Search jacking up car wobbly. Hmm.. not good stuff. Cars falling off jacks results coming up. Not good. Lower car and start reading. Why are there 20 different ways to jack up this car???? And not everybody can agree on a best way? Use the crankcase. DON'T use the crankcase! DO this do that. . However one good thing I noticed was no matter which way you jack up the car was these ESCO jackstands. Everyone seems to love them and they make the car rock steady. Ok I ordered some and planned on starting next weekend.


So despite having EVERYTHING I (thought) needed. I got stumped.


OK Week 2. Man I love these ESCO jackstands. I jacked my car up and they felt awesome. I started very gently trying to move the car on the jackstands in different directions and it wouldn't budge. Very reassuring.


OK. Here we go. Wheels off panel back there's the oil tank and first filter. So far so good. Hmmm. My jackstand is in the perfect place to put my new super whoppo oversized oil pan. Hmmm. Lots of moving it around. Looking. I know what happens when that bolt comes out. It will release the most oil. I've done my homework. No fooling me. Hmmm. What if I cheat. I'm not getting under the car yet, what if I support that corner of the car with the jack via the rear suspension member and temporarily remove the jackstand. Keeping the car level, of course. Pure Genius. I am going to be writing DIY's pretty soon! OK Super mega pan in place. Bolt out. Whoa!!! That's a lot of oil!!!! Crazy fast adjustment of pan!!! Whew, not too bad. Some splatter, but all in all I think I got 98% of it.


Sit back on my stool while I watch the oil slow down to a narrow trickle. Not too bad. If that was the hardest part I did pretty good! Just about to grab my Dr Pepper and have a sip when WAIT! Whats that dark shadow behind the oil pan. That wasn't there before? What the heck?????????? Freaking oil all out and under the car a huge puddle! My brand new oversize pan had a quarter inch hole in the bottom of it! Did I mention I bought this at pepboys yet???? If not this might be a good time to give them an UN-PLUG!


So talk about a rock and a hard place. Can't move the pan, can't leave it there oil EVERYWHERE! End up holding my finger over the hole until the oil finished draining then cleaned up for about 30 minutes. SO that didn't go so well.


Next up first filter. Not bad. Checked the old gasket came off and lubed the new one.


OK It's going better. Now. Whats next: crankcase drain.

I am embarrassed to say, it took me 15 minutes to find this.

Really embarrassed. I was looking all under that car for 15 minutes with a flashlight. Turns out either PCar pictures aren't in the exact order of the text or I printed them or stapled them wrong. Most likely was my error. But bottom line - I was looking at the final oil tank picture which is taken from under the car 'looking out' and looks very little like the oil tank picture looking 'in' Yeah embarrassing. I passed over the 'right' bolt 6 times, but no, that wasn't the one in the picture. Finally got out from under the car, flipped the page and voila - duh.


After 'finding' it - the Crankcase was easy.


2nd filter was actually easy too. I did the 'leave on oil return" method. I used a 7mm socket on the jubilee clamps and that was a snap. And thank you to the PO for leaving them all ideally lined-up.


Oil went in pretty easy. 'Only' 2 back ups. Both minor and rag absorbed.


Total time.... hmmm close to 5 hours.. but that included a few interruptions, my pepboys LEAK! and a friend coming over to check out the car. I wasn't trying to go fast either. Just enjoyed myself. I'll add it was kinda fun just being under the car just looking around actually. Fascinating piece of machinery there. Fascinating.

e9stibi

You will get faster. After 5 changes now, I do not even need instructions. As long as you had fun ...

k722070

all that oil on the garage floor is the perfect time to be a hero-
'honey? I'm going to change the cat's litter box cause I care so much.'

kjr914

Funny, but I think we all have these stories. Like the one about my 2+ month alternator install, with 3 rebuilds...NEVER use the BFH in haste! I should have posted it, at the time when it was fresh in my mind, but was too painful. Now I've buried it deep and couldn't do it justice (as mts did in fine fashion with the original post).

e9stibi

Or installing the Walrod bushings ...

The first took me hours to get the big sleeve out of the arm and at the end it was not real fun anymore. When I did the second car the following year, it took 15 mins to get the same sleeve out.

How about hood / lid shock replacement or my first brake bleeding that introduced air? ...

There is always a learning curve and the most important thing is that someone should not feel rushed or intimidated by postings "this took me 1h including jacking the car up an down".

morsini

Is this a great place or what? I bought my first Porsche in 2001 a 964 and I remember fondly the first time I changed its oil (not). Now it's prop a jack and done in an hour. Clean-up's another story.

JB 911

I think there are a few big keys to enjoying 'it' as in working on your car and e9stibi you hit one on the head - taking your time and not feeling rushed.

Another would be its not your dd so if it has to sit you aren't TOO stressed. A third is a comfortable garage. In the 10 years I've been in my house, last Sunday (oil change day) was the longest I've spent in there at one time. I took the time to wire up some old speakers and radio and got some good classic rock going in the background.

In Texas, it's not gonna be fun working on it in July either. So I am already planning to do my oil March and October, whether it needs it or not. If I need something in the summer then it's probably going in unless it's minor. I probably one of the few who still wear glasses and having sweat drop onto them while trying to work is a major pita and buzzkill...

JB 911

And morsini, I couldn't agree more. Without this place, I probably wouldn't have bought my car - I would have been too intimidated to try and solve all the problems from scratch myself and I would have bought something newer.

pp000830

Mts,
Great story, you missed your calling as a writer!
For me I empty the oil cold and do not remove the pipe that Service Manual suggests. I bet I leave as much as one quart of old oil in the system doing this. The old stuff is diluted 1:11 in the process , I surmise it's no biggie. Besides cold oil running up your arm and into you shirt is lots less exciting than hot oil. The proces is very messy. That is why I use a huge cement mixing tub as the catch tray and hose off the underside of the engine with electrical motor cleaner when I finish the job.

Andy :-)






Andy :-)

Leander

I did mine yesterday. The first problem was that my hydraulic jack didn't work so I had to go indoors to do some research on the Google. I drove to Pep Boys for the wonderfully-named jack oil. They didn't have any, but did give me directions to Autozone where I got the last bottle. Got home then realized there was nothing wrong with the jack; I'd simply forgotten to turn the handle clockwise to wind it up.

It was now about two in the afternoon. It gets dark here at 5pm. I have a tiny garage and any work must be done outside. I too had researched the articles and videos. I figured that if people claim to do their oil changes in one hour, including time to take photographs, I should definitely be able to get mine done in two hours, before it got dark...

I followed the instructions and jacked up each side of the rear and put axle stands under the front. Now to jack up the rear. The usual angst: is it really safe to put the jack under the engine? But if not, how the heck do you put axle stands exactly where the jack is positioned? What the hell, if I split the case, I'll just get it fixed, right? About to roll the jack under the rear licence plate, but wtf it won't go under; the car's too low. So jack one side up and put a plank of wood under; do the same on the other side. Roll jack under the rear. Still too low. Repeat. Two planks under each wheel does the trick. I got the rear up and the axle stands in place, but it probably took almost an hour (not including going to Pep Boys and Autozone).

Wheel off was fine, as was accessing the oil plug and filter. The day before I'd received an oversize oil pan from Pelican; I put this under the plug. Nice of Porsche to put the axle stand precisely where the oil pan needs to go. No matter, I was prepared with a nifty funnel made of cardboard. I unscrewed the oil plug and as expected hot (I'd just come back from Autozone) oil gushed out, down the funnel and cleanly into the oil pan. This is easy, right? Except no-one tells you that the oil flow is much faster than the speed the oil can go through the little filler hole in the oil pan, which rapidly started to fill to the brim. I avoided an overflow by quickly screwing the oil plug back in. I had to do this a couple of times before the flow settled down to a manageable level. Time to remove the large filter. No problem, Pelican had also sent me a filter removal tool. None of the videos or write ups said what tool is needed so you can actually use the filter tool. I searched my tool box in vain for a wrench large enough to fit the flats. I ended up using a pair of channel lock pliers. I took the old filter out easily enough. Time to put the new one in. I greased the new rubber gasket with new oil and then realized you weren't supposed to remove the new gasket to grease up both sides... Anyhow it went in easy enough. I put a new metal washer and put the oil plug back in. Torqueing to 40 feels way too tight. Anyway, that's what everyone says to do.

I got underneath the engine with my trusty oil pan. For some reason I removed the driver side orange hose, thinking I needed to for access to the oil plug. The plug came out smoothly and oil dropped without drama into the oil pan. Now for the small filter. I have to admit it took me at least 15 minutes of hunting around crawling on my back under the car before I could figure out where it must be; what friggin oil line? What are they talking about? Oh, that's the orange hose I was supposed to remove. Why did I do the other one? Anyway, both orange hoses and the R-shaped vacuum cleaner things came out. Fingers crossed that I'd know how to put them back again. What do they do anyway? Aha! There's the filter and that must be the oil line. I got the bolt off, stuck a screwdriver under the tab. It moved a little and stopped. Hmm, I read that some guys don't take that line out, maybe I can get the filter out without doing so. Wait. How am I going to get that filter out? There's no space up there for my channel-lock pliers. Oh well, best get the line out first. I used a small tire wrench to pry against the tab, bending it a little in the process, and managed to release the end of the oil line which duly dropped its contents cleanly into the oil pan. Now how to get the filter out? The filter tool has a small square hole in the center. Maybe I can find an oversized allen wrench or some other tool to fit in there? My toolbox had nothing suitable. As a last resort I checked to see if the stubby end of a ratchet wrench would fit. Thank God, it did! I put on an extender and got the filter off and put the new one in, this time oiling only one face of the rubber gasket.

By now it was dark and I was doing everything by the light of my trusty cordless spotlight. I replaced the oil plug, put the oil hose back, hopefully it'll be okay. Now time to replace the orange tubes and vacuum cleaners. This shouldn't be too hard, except when you're lying on your back trying to get the rubber sleeves over the metal parts, only to find that a metal clamp you need had fallen on the ground. And when you eventually get all the clamps in the right place, the rubber refuses to fit over the metal tubes, and when they do, you don't have the arm strength to turn the screws on the clamps which keep losing their place on the tubes. Just when it was getting really annoying my spotlight died leaving me under the car literally in the dark. It actually seemed to go easier from here. I was able to reattach both sides' orange tubes by feel and using ambient light.

I don't know about anyone else, but I have a hell of a time getting my wheels lined up properly to go back on. It's always a struggle. After the wheel was on I removed the rear axle stands and lowered the rear of the car onto the blocks of wood. Then went to each side, raised the car again to remove the front axle stands and the wood from the rears. with the car safely on the ground I tightened the rear wheel.

The oil went in fairly smoothly, I didn't spill too much. Mid-way through the process I stuck a funnel into the opening and tied it to the engine cover. After 8.5 quarts I started the car and backed it a few yards to a more level place. I let in run for a while then checked the dipstick. Nothing. I put in another quart, let it run. Nothing on the dipstick. I topped up so that 10 quarts had gone in and decided to call it a day - I didn't want to run the risk of overfilling it. I parked the car inside its little garage and went inside and to have a late dinner. Cleaned up and went to bed. This morning I checked to make sure all the oil hadn't fallen out of the car overnight. The floor was still clean. I warmed the car up and checked the dipstick again. Still nothing on it. I put another half quart in, for a total of 10.5 quarts. This time I imagined seeing some oil near the end of the dipstick. I figure 10.5 quarts should be good enough.

I won't tell you how long my first oil change took from start to finish, but it was much longer than one hour and I did not take any photographs.