Oil change ... THREE Quarts on the garage floor ... please tell me you know this one

["Douglas R. and Julia R. Harris" <dharris@domain.elided>]

    I hesitate to advertise my idiocy, but here it goes.
    I've had my 77 Alfa Spider a little over a year now.  It has 29,500
documented miles on it and I've changed the oil only twice because I've
put just 1,500 miles on it since I got it.  Not knowing when the SPICA
filter was last changed, I decided to order one and put it on today as
part of an oil and filter change.
    I thought I was following the manual.  I put the new SPICA filter
and gasket in place and tightened the bottom nut fairly tight, leaving
the top two fairly loose.  After putting 6 1/2 quarts of 20w50 in
(putting part of a quart of that in the main oil filter like Russ has
suggested), I started it up, let it idle at about 1,000 rpm for, I hope,
no longer than about 60 seconds, and cut it off.  (Afterwards I realized
that I had noticed -- but it really hadn't registered -- that the oil
pressure gauge hardly left 0, but the oil light went out after several
seconds.)  I hopped out, expecting to see that a little oil had "oozed,"
as the manual predicts, out past the SPICA filter plate so I could
tighten it and check the dipstick.  I discovered that I had what I
estimate to be about THREE QUARTS OF FRESH OIL ON THE GARAGE FLOOR.  I
hadn't tightened the SPICA filter nuts enough.
    After tightening the nuts and topping up the oil, I took it out and
ran it a bit.  It seems fine (although it always seems to run a bit
warm).
    Please tell me that I'm not the first idiot you've heard of doing
this and that I haven't ruined anything.  If it's possible that I have,
what do I look for to tell?

Doug
Richmond, Virginia

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