Allowing oil to drain a long time question

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This is one of those "To each his own" subjects....

I personally pride myself on draining the oil as long as I can.

Obviously, this isnt always possible. I.e. changing a friends/family oil. I drain the oil, we go do other things (check air pressure together, check air filter, go [censored] in the garage) until the oil has become a very slow drip. Then plug it.

On my 2002 Envoy, I let it drain overnight. On the 2005 Saturn I let it drain overnight last time only because I was going from conventional to synthetic and it had about 9000 miles on bulk dealership conventional so I wanted a nice clean sump to start with.

On the car that I teach driver ed in - a 1996 Geo Prizm LSI with the 1.8l engine and 211,000 miles, I let it drain overnight as well. Because I figure the last guy that had it drove it up until 199,000 miles and I dont know his OCI habits. I like to err on the side of clean oil

Ive NEVER had any problems with not building up oil pressure right away on any vehicle, I'd guess that kind of problem is occurring on older high mileage engines that have trouble building pressure anyways (worn mains?)

 

[ted s]

i let it drain the time it takes to change the filter.

 

[Kestas]

I change the filter first. It improves the workflow under the car just a bit better.

 

[SKUNKY]

Originally Posted By: bustednutz
Heres what my dad used to do.
He'd drain the oil and let it get to a slow drip.
Then he'd..........brace yourselves, start the car, let it run for 3 or so seconds, and shut it off.
You'd be surprised at how much extra old oil comes out.
I don't do this, nor support this. But it got out more oil and made him happier.
Never really seemed to do any damage to his vehicles either.

Now that's funny...years ago, I was taking my wifes motorcycle out of winter storage. I would drain the oil in the fall and replenish with fresh oil in the spring. Well, I fired the bike up and let it run for @ 3/4 minutes when I remembered that I forgot to put in the fresh oil.

The motor ran great for many miles thereafter..not what I expected but no problem.

 

[mikeg5]

will drain while motor is still warm. i let it drain while i do other things to the truck like inspecting, changing the P.S. fluid, brake fluid ect etc.. so it usually drains for about 30 mins or so.. i know i got most of the fluid out bc after i refill and crank it up you can hear the chatter going on before the new oil gets pumped to it. then is quietens down in about a second or two.

 

[demarpaint]

I drop the oil, grease the car, check tire pressure etc, change out filter. I'll have a cup of coffee and maybe do some small odd yard job while the oil is draining, then put oil plug in and refill. Total time oil is draining is about 1 hour.

Frank D

 

[My442]

There is probably 1 pint of dirty oil that will never come out, as most engines have pockets that do not drain.

I wait until the dripping stops, and then refill.

 

[MarkJ]

Think it was just being sucked out of the filter, which would have come out with the old filter anyway???? Think that only three seconds could hurt it any more than a cold start up???

 

[BarkerMan]

At a local dealership they put the plug back in as soon as the stream slows down. One of the lube rack guys said that's what you get for $19.95 while you wait. He said it's more important to get the car back quickly to the waiting customer.