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

["Brian Shorey" <bshorey@domain.elided>]

<snip>
>     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?
<snip>

You're the first <something> I've ever heard of doing that, but perhaps
only because I've never heard of that procedure before.  I knew there
was a good reason why I never read the manuals.

Here's the procedure I use, for future reference.  It's worked for me
over the years, never a problem.  Like almost everything I learned about
routine maintenance of Alfas, I picked this one up from either Father
Fred or Paul Glynn, so it must be correct.

Drain the oil.
Replace the drain plug (I have heard of idiots losing oil all over the
garage floor for failure to do that..
Remove the cover for the Spica filter, r&r the one that's in there.
Remove the cover over the logic section of the pump.
Pour some oil in there, maybe until it's 1/2 to 3/4 full.
Replace that cover.
R&R the oil filter.
Fill the engine with oil.  Well, don't really *fill* it - put 7 or 8
quarts in, enough to get it to the proper level on the dipstick.  Sorry,
I had to throw this in just in case you *are* an idiot ;)
Start it up.

I *always* start a vehicle up after an oil change and immediately hop
out to look underneath, just in case something is leaking from
somewhere.

Couple of additional points - first, you don't need to change your oil
every 750 miles.  Even if you don't drive the car a lot, good motor oil
should last longer than that.  Just be sure to give it a good Italian
tune up every once in a while.  Second, you want to change the Spica oil
filter ever other oil change.

HTH,

bs
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