Replace oil plug without losing oil. WHAT SORCERY IS THIS?!?

[Rusty PW]

I'm not saying that you are a wuss, just that a 'top down' oil change is not the choice that I would make.
I have learned to drag a jet-heater out when the temps drop below 20°F. A piece of cardboard, tarp, or even a floormat to lay on works.

@Rusty PW ever have to start a fire under a truck to get it going? How about a fire on the tracks of a piece of equipment to un-freeze it?
@ShadowsPapa frosted plugs. Never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it. -35°F with 30mph winds. Went to start my El Camino and it wouldn't fire. Went back into the engine shop where I worked and owner told me exactly what happened. I went back out, pulled a plug and it was frosty. Held a lighter to it and it lit. Can't make this up.
The fuel crystalized on the sparkplugs.

Have put drop lights under the hood and covered the engine with thick blankets.
One neighbor had a semi. When he came home and parked it for the weekend. He had a big roasting pan that he would load up with charcoal and lite it. Then push the pan under the engine.
At the power plant. You should see some of the shit we use to do to keep pipes from freezing up. Walk around with a 30 lb propane tank and a weed burner torch heating pipes up. Covering pumps with tarps and putting kerosene heaters under the tarps. Then watch the tarps catch fire about a hour later. LOL

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[AmishMike]

Haha!! yes, charcoal is much safer than wood under an engine.

Thawing pipes with a big DC welder......seen it done but not brave enough myself.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Know that pain from working in below zero weather. Rebuilt a steam turbine at an oil refinery in Bradford Pa. in Feb. Was there for 3 weeks working outside for 12 hrs a day. Every morning. Knocked the snow off the equipment and tools before we could start.

Yeah, when winter hit hard here, Neill would tow in cars and trucks that wouldn't start.
We had to do whatever it took to get them going.......... often out in the alley because the shop was already full. You know the drill of reaching into really tight spaces where gloves don't fit, replacing points, plugs, thawing fuel lines, whatever, often without gloves as you can't hold those parts or eve reach them. My hands show the wear and tear these days.

Top down is in theory not as good as a full drain. But the reality is that go fast boat guys have been doing it for decades.

Doesn't mean it's good for long life. The crud settles to the bottom - any water, acids, the heavy stuff. Unless you start it to warm it up, once it sits, things settle to the bottom.
I've had enough pans off of enough engines, and I've seen the damage, I don't care what they do - it's not smart. I'd never do it with any equipment I wanted to last more than a short time. Just because "they did it" or "they got by" doesn't mean it's good or their engines were worth a crap after a while. There's a lot of things people "do for decades" that's still stupid - they are only repeating what their peers do or others have done.
I can't count any more the oil changes, engine work, engine rebuilds, whatever......... glad I don't have to buy what they are selling.

I went back out, pulled a plug and it was frosty. Held a lighter to it and it lit. Can't make this up.

Condensation froze on the plug, shorting it and then all that fuel that went in couldn't be lit because the plug was shorted by the frost - condensation.
We had a customer who owned a Renault Le Car - and every time the temperature dipped, the car would not start. Fresh plugs solved it every single time no matter how many or how few miles were on it. It was cheaper just to put plugs in it than to mess around drying them out and fussing with it. Condensation shorted the plugs and it flooded making the plugs wet with fuel, which would burn.

I bet all of those cars would have gone the same mileage without doing any of that voodoo extra work stuff ...

Diminishing returns and such ...

If it makes you feel good, have at it and tell me that I'm wrong ... And to each his own really ... But aside from a good drain, a new filter and high quality synthetic oil, Im on the couch with a beer or 6 ...

Yup - and if someone truly appreciates their vehicles and wants to do right by them, they WILL find a way to properly change oil, no matter.
There are always places that rent space, or a neighbor or friend, or insulated coveralls, foot warmers, hand warmers, whatever.
I find a way to do it - right.
No snake oil - never necessary, it's just a feel good thing the experts on Madison Avenue have discovered in their psychology classes.

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