How to Fill Engine Oil

How to Fill Engine Oil
Hi! My name is Nate McCullough on behalf of expertvillage.com. In this clip we are going to talk about one of the steps involved in a major tune-up or vehicle overhaul. This step we are talking about is refilling the engine oil after it has been drained. In this clip we are going to talk about one of the maintenance items involved in a major tune-up or vehicle overhaul. Once we’ve drained the engine oil, we are going to have to refill it and what you are looking for there are various types of engine oil. Now days you have synthetics, synthetic blends and conventional. I still prefer conventional oil for the cost of better fit ratio. These synthetics are great; nothing against them but they are still too expensive for me to purchase for my dollars worth. What you are looking for as far as a qualified oil to make sure that the quality is where you want it is this. This symbol right here stands for American Petroleum Institute Service and the rating is SL. Anything farther down in the alphabet than SJ is appropriate for any vehicle built after 1989. Before that, it is going to be letters decreasing in rank of the alphabet. You are going to have SA, SB, and SC and so on. Those are rated for much older vehicles. So anything rated for SL or better is going to good enough for you. This happens to be the cheap stuff on the shelf. Locate and remove your oil cap. It’s a good idea to set it up out of the way so you won’t bump it. If it falls down on the engine department, you are going to have to spend some time looking for it. I always do the final. I’ve done this a million times and spilled probably a million drops of oil. If you use a funnel, you are going to notice that you won’t spill any. The oil quart jug is offset. As you can see, the opening is all the way to one side. That is the side that you want up. That is going to allow air to enter the quart as the oil leaves, so it doesn’t pull a vacuum and dump out of the quart on you. The amount of oil that your engine is going to take varies pretty widely. This particular vehicle, I checked the owner’s manual and it’s my car, it takes approximately 4 ½ quarts. Now the appropriate method for this particular vehicle would be to add 4 quarts. Fire the engine, back it down off the ramps, wait for the oil pressure to come up which is going to indicate that the filter is primed and then shut the engine off and wait approximately 30 seconds for the oil to drain out of the cylinder head. From there, I would remove the dipstick, check the oil and adjust the level with the additional half quart. Now the amount of oil that your particular vehicle is going to take is going to vary pretty widely. You are going to want to refer to your owner’s manual for the appropriate method and quantities. It is going to be in the section listed under fluid capacities or routine maintenance. If you have a diesel you are going to be talking about gallons of oil instead of quarts. Make sure you get enough oil before you drain it out of your engine because you may be stuck if you only have one car.