Old oil problem.

[Narcoleptic]

I've got a bit of a dilemma right now, and I'm not quite sure how to handle this.

My wife woke me up early this morning telling me the car wouldn't start. I sent her off to work in my car, and fixed hers. I checked the oil in her car as I was finishing up, and noticed it was a little low. We've recently cleaned-up and organized the garage, and now all my one-gallon oil jugs are in milk crates. I am the one who determined what jugs were moved into the crates. I also store my used oil in empty jugs before I take it to a recycling center.

I think you can see where this is heading.

I poured a few ounces of used oil into the engine. I realized immediately what I had done as I saw the oil coming out of the contained was pitch black. Unfortunately some made it into the fill hole. I used a rag and my finger to wipe as much oil as I could from the fill hole and valve cover. This particular cover has a stair step baffle underneath the cap and you cannot see the cam below the fill hole. However where I can reach my finger under the baffles, I am coming up with clean oil.

I am going to change the oil now, but I don't know if I should just drain the oil as it sits or run the engine before draining it. It wasn't enough oil to make it to the pan, so I'm thinking of pouring some oil down the fill hole with the drain plug off to "flush" the used oil out.

Any suggestions? And yes, I already know I am a colossal retard.

 

[TallPaul]

I don't think that little bit of used oil is an issue. The real problem would be in how clean the drain pan was. There could have been some debris in the pan. Take a look a the drain pan. Wipe your finger in it. Is it gritty? No? Maybe no problem. Also, any gritty stuff would likely have settled in the jugs and not have come out with the small amount you poured in. I would think a simple oil change should suffice, but if you want to pour a quart or two through the filler hole during the change for extra flush, go get some cheap oil at the dollar store.

but it may make you feel a little better about your situation:
I recently had a UOA wiht 476 ppm lead.

Normally 15 ppm lead is considered high around here. Anyway, I found the PCV breather hose loose and unfiltered. I hope my next UOA does not have high lead or I may be in for a rebuild. So far the oil pressure is holding steady and it is not consuming oil, so I think I am OK.

 

[Ray Garlington]

an ounce of old oil isn't going to hurt anything. I wouldn't bother changing the oil for that reason.

 

[goodvibes]

You poured from the top. The real bad stuff probably settles out to the bottom anyway. That's if you had any in the first place. An ounce of oxidized or slightly acidic oil should be fine. I wouldn't change the interval over it. If anything bad got into your oil, the filter would have caught it by now

 

[Narcoleptic]

Well that makes me feel a little better. I am fairly certain that the used oil in this particular container is just from the car in question (a '96 Miata) and a '96 Subaru Outback. It had been sitting for awhile, and I just slightly tilted (no funnel and just topping off the oil in the engine) the jug while pouring. I think I got more oil on the valve cover than in the fill hole.

I am going to start marking the containers "used" now. Thank you for all the responses. Now to tell my wife... She always makes fun of me for refilling empty jugs instead of just taking the drain pan to the recycling center. Now I'll never hear the end of it. Oh well, just desserts for pulling a such boneheaded move.

 

[blupupher]

I have my used oil on the other side of the garage.

I agree with the others, not anything to really worry about.

 

[pushrod]

When I was a kid, we used to sell used oil for 10 cents a quart to top off cars at the Sinclair station. No problems.