Oil "Drip" Bottle

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Like many of you here, I'm pretty anal about oil and I'm even more nuts about getting oil deals. Of course since I have kids, I'm also concerned about the environment. That brings me to the following story.
Growing up I worked for a bunch of gas stations. One of them was an unscrupulous U-Haul dealer. U-Haul used to have to beg their dealers to maintain their trucks, paid the going retail rate to do so. Well this guy would take oil(or ATF) cans from regular customer oil changes and lay them on a piece of angle iron sloping into a drum. This would get every last drop of oil out of them. By the way, I know I'm dating myself with the story about oil cans. I digress... He would then change the oil filter on the U-Haul trucks, add a quart of the "drip" oil mix, bill U-Haul for a full oil change, and send the truck on it's way with the next rental. Living in a college town, the trucks would roll in and out. Hell, he made a fortune doing this.
Some time ago I noticed I'd never get all the oil out of a plastic oil bottle. So, using an old Mobil1 5 quart container, I just drain the 99% empty oil bottles all the way. I buy a lot of junker cars and it's a great way to use up the "drip" oil without going into the stash of good oil. Anyone else do this and how do you do it?
 
I find that mobile 1 quart size bottles are perfect for this. Takes quite a while to fill up one bottle though...
 
i awalys do this. my biddies are impaitent when they change their oil and leave about an ounce or 2 in the bottle. i go over and take their bottles being them home and empty each bottle for 24 hours.
i have 1 quart of free oil sitting here, that i use for lawnmower.
 
I do the same thing. I change out all the families oil in all their vehicles, that is, lets see, 7 total. It still takes a while but I get a free quart. Since I change the oil I use all the same brand and weight. I got the ketchup saver from Wal-Mart. Works great for a one on one drain.
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I have a 30 gallon drum with a big black funnel on top. I pour my drain oil into it and then leave the empty bottles draining in the funnel until the next day when they are tossed.

When I use Amsoil though I do drain each bottle into an empty bottle one at at time by placing one upside down on top of the other.
 
ssmokn

Nice site! They have several things I like.

The oil saver looks somewhat like one that the county recycleing department had at a booth they set up with give aways. I wish they would do that again someday. They gave me one somewhat simular, but I will have to check to see if the bottle screws onto the drain. I also got a four gallon bucket with a special lid that was used to drain the oil into and you could drain the filter in it then take it to be recycled. Best oil drain system I have seen. All free stuff.
 
Using a suitably sized wood drill bit or hore saw, drill 4 or 5 holes in the top of a 4L (qt.) oil jug. These holes must be the diameter of the cap thread of your usual L. (qt.) bottle. When you finish you oil change merely screw the emptied bottles into the jug holes to let them drain until your next oil change. That way you keep the capture system sealed and lessen the chance of any debris (Si) from entering the residual oil. I use the the captured oil in my oil can for general external oilings -- have never chanced dumping this stuff back into an engine.
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Today I stopped at a discount auto parts store and scavenged six empty oil cans (with caps in place) from their parking lot garbage cans (could have gotten 15 or more, but that wasn't my purpose). I drained those six for maybe half an hour and got three ounces. One can was pretty dry, but another had nearly an ounce in it. There is a lot of good oil being thrown out.

Gas station owner I worked for in the '70s used to drip all the oil cans from customer changes. He never bought oil for his car.
 
quote:

Originally posted by TallPaul:
Today I stopped at a discount auto parts store and scavenged six empty oil cans (with caps in place) from their parking lot garbage cans (could have gotten 15 or more, but that wasn't my purpose). I drained those six for maybe half an hour and got three ounces. One can was pretty dry, but another had nearly an ounce in it. There is a lot of good oil being thrown out.

Gas station owner I worked for in the '70s used to drip all the oil cans from customer changes. He never bought oil for his car.


I don't mean to be rude, but how is 3 ounces of oil worth digging it out of the garbage? Give them $0.69 that you found on the sidewalk and get a whole 32 ounces.
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quote:

Originally posted by ZmOz:
I don't mean to be rude, but how is 3 ounces of oil worth digging it out of the garbage? Give them $0.69 that you found on the sidewalk and get a whole 32 ounces.
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It does present an odd picture. Wonder what the folks in the auto parts store thought of this guy running around picking bottles out of the garbage. Actually I was on a mission to get a variety of oil cans without actually buying the oil and having to run it all mixed up in my engine. Why? Because I am oil nuts and my nine-year-old son is also. So we are getting all the different oils to put on the shelf and look at. Weird thing is the Havoline (love the piston shooting up the label) 10w40 I picked is SJ--apparently old stock. I just ordered a book, "Encyclopedia of Petrolinana ($10 from publisher, Krause.com,this month) that has 800 photos of oil signs, cans, etc. I saw a preview on Amazon.com and it had a can of 5w20 that appeared to be from the 30s maybe and was listed to be worth $20-50 (and we thought 5w20 was new). Can't wait to browse the book, but meanwhile ...there's another discount auto parts store in the other direction--I still don't have any Chevron cans for my shelf.
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[ January 03, 2004, 12:49 AM: Message edited by: TallPaul ]
 
As I fill a car, I put the "empty" container in a strategic place that allows the oil to drain to one spot on top, near the spout. When I am done adding my last quart, I pour the leftover from my first quart in and so on. It is a compramise, but a good one: little *time* and oil is wasted. I doubt if there is a half a teaspoon leftover, but if anyone wants it, come and get a few drops of GC.
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Ditto. Industry calls it "clingage loss". It's also an environmetally frindly thing to do. I also do it with other fluids.
 
When I change my oil the motor is hot. I set the bottles so all the oil drains into the bottom corner of the spout side. Then, using a narrow necked oil bottle cut in half which I use as a funnel, I drain the the last of the oil out of each bottle over a 1/2 hour or so period into the engine. I usually drain the bottles until I count 25 drips.......
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Not much left when I get done.

After looking at he Hanson oil saver though it looks like just the thing for easy dripping.

[ January 04, 2004, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: SHOZ ]
 
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