Oil conundrum... To mix or not...

[NattyBoh]

So I couldn't have thought of a better place to ask this lol. Long story short my wifes Edge takes 5.75qts. This oil change, I had a qt left over from the last in the jug, or so I thought...

I threw the new full 5qt jug in and went to throw the remaining .75qt fromt the other jug( from the previous oil change ), and it was less than that obviously. So I checked the stick and Im low, but still in the hash marks, Id say 1/3 up the has marks at best. Might be .5 qts low.

Should I:

A: Buy another quart at an absurd price per qt versus the large jug.
B: Buy a 5qt Jug, use what little I need and end up this route again later on...
C: Buy some cheap oil and just top it off with that little bit I need and let it go?

Thoughts?

 

[Lubener]

B. Use the remander on the next oil change.
C. Would be fine too.

 

[ammolab]

Buy the 5qt jug…get a rebate, store the 4+ quarts for later…
Then Realize you have the smallest oil “stash” on the whole site!

 

[wpod]

Why would this be a conundrum ?

 

[JMJNet]

You know, despite popular belief here at BITOG.
The engine does not care what oil you put let alone coming from which jug.

 

[atikovi]

Its an enigma.

 

[TiGeo]

Just buy another 5 qt, the singles are just too much and you can use it next time.

 

[Shel_B]

My choice would be "B" but I have at times bought a single quart and left what remains of it in the trunk for topping off. Sure, it's a little more expensive but, for me, the convenience is worth it. I've had that partial extra quart for two years and I finally used a bit on this last road trip.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Option B.

 

[ka9mnx]

B. It's what I do.

 

[Kira]

I sure don't like open bottles of oil in a vehicle unless there's a pocket where it'll stand up straight.
Still, oil creeps up and out of open capped bottles, crawls down the sides then goes everywhere staining everything.
Any vehicle I manufacture will have an "Oil Corral" under the hood. It'll come to be called, "The BITOG Box".

What, no "Some adpacks don't play well together", response yet?

Seriously, they make top up oil called ABAG. It stands for All Brands, All Grades. It has no properties except volume.

 

[redbone3]

I have an unopened quart of oil in the trunk, always. It lives in a zip lock bag in case of seepage.

 

[Merek]

I sure don't like open bottles of oil in a vehicle unless there's a pocket where it'll stand up straight.
Still, oil creeps up and out of open capped bottles, crawls down the sides then goes everywhere staining everything.
Any vehicle I manufacture will have an "Oil Corral" under the hood. It'll come to be called, "The BITOG Box".

What, no "Some adpacks don't play well together", response yet?

Seriously, they make top up oil called ABAG. It stands for All Brands, All Grades. It has no properties except volume.

You have to watch because they can pretty much leak from anywhere on the bottle even not from the top, especially from the seams where it's been glued together and the bottle is just soft plastic and can get pinhole leaks very easily if something pokes it.

My truck has pockets in the rear doors that's perfect for storing the extra quart and I try to rotate it in whenever possible so it doesn't get but so old, works great for topping off or using it up with a fresh oil change, it takes 6 so I'll either need to open another jug or I can use that one quart if it's on hand.

The extra doesn't get used a whole lot as it seems to go through 1 qt per oil change so by the time it's low and getting changed anyways but it does come in handy for topping off the mower.

 

[doublebase]

I end up doing option B. almost all the time because my sump holds 6.4 quarts - which leaves me with a five quart container, holding 3.6 quarts.

Prior to that I had a car with a 9.1 quart sump, but that thing would burn through 2 quarts or more in 5,000-7,000 miles.

I’ve also had a sump that took 8 quarts...I’d have two quarts left over.

I think most of us are in the same ballpark nowadays, the time when you could go out and buy an even five quarts and call it a day are over.

 

[Duffyjr]

With all the weird sump capacities it's pretty hard not to have open bottles laying around unless you over/under fill.

I'd buy a quart, use 1/4 of it, that would leave you .75 for the next OC unless you need top off oil then get the 5qt jug.

 

[CleanSump]

a) It's within the hash marks. You are good to go, not low. You'll be low when it gets below the hash marks.
b) Even a $4 quart of oil from the grocery store, Walmart, the corner convenience store, will not upset the subtle balance of ingredients so necessary for the high specifications required of this precision Ford peice of clockwork.

These 1st world problems are actually amusing.

 

[02zx9r rev2]

C.

The motor will never know the difference and keep doing its thing. As long as there is oil in it it will be happy

 

[demarpaint]

Here's my conundrum [not really]. In October I will be changing the oil in my 88 E-150 4.9L 6 quart capacity. Here's what's going in, and I'm not going to lose a second of sleep.

1 Gallon of DELO 5W40 400 LE.
1 QT Mobil 1 TDT 5W40
1 QT HPL 30 grade engine cleaner. I wish they offered the 40 grade at the time I ordered the case, but they didn't.

 

[ka9mnx]

Here's my conundrum [not really]. In October I will be changing the oil in my 88 E-150 4.9L 6 quart capacity. Here's what's going in, and I'm not going to lose a second of sleep.

1 Gallon of DELO 5W40 400 LE.
1 QT Mobil 1 TDT 5W40
1 QT HPL 30 grade engine cleaner. I wish they offered the 40 grade at the time I ordered the case, but they didn't.

Hah!
My '93 F-150 4.9L takes 5.5 quarts and here is what I do. I dump a 5 quart jug and the dip stick reads 1/2 quart low. That's where it sits until it's next oil change.

 

[ecotourist]

B.

I do this all the time. My engines never take the same amount as the big jugs hold. So there is always some left over or some needed out of the next jug. That's why I buy multiple jugs when there is a good sale on. I try to work it out so there will be no oil left over after some number of changes and sometimes that even works!