Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hey people, ive been doing alot of oil changes to my car in the past, and need to know how to correctly top it up....

I just bought a 5l castrol edge 0w40, and filter too, doing both at the same time....but need to know the best way to top it all up.

Usually i just loosen the filter, and the drain plug and let all the oil come out, then top it upin one hit....

but i was told to top up 4l first, then turn on car, then top rest up till the oil is at the high level on the dipstick....should i be topping up all 5l or no?

thanks in reply!

Put in about 4.5l. Start engine until the gauge registers pressure (5 - 10 secs), then switch off. Let stand for a few minutes to allow the oil to drain back to the sump. Now check dipstick, add oil as necessary.

drain the oil,

replace sump washer and torque plug up,

remove and replace filter,

fill engine with 4L or so of oil,

start engine, wait for oil light to extinquish,

let sit for a minute, check dip stick level.

top up until FULL.

the reason you start it after filling initially is because the oil filter is not full of oil initially until you start it and you will get a misleading oil level. (higher then it actually will be once new oil filter is full)

iv serviced cars many times... the way i see it and do it is,

get it warm (as warm oil will flow through internals easier than cold oil),

you get her up?,

undo plug and filter, let drain over a period of time (i leave it for over an hour, but no need to do it as long),

make sure area is clean of dirt ect. by using a rag, put new filter on 2/3 turn (run a bead of clear oil over rubber gasket helps seal under heat),

clean around plug hole on sump, put plug back in,

lower the car down,

put new oil in (i put in same amount that comes out), let sit for a bit, check dip stick and slowly top up bit by bit waiting about 1 min in between check until level is close to high level on dipstick,

take for a short drive to get oil a bit warm then recheck because new oil will be pushed around all internals, turbo ect. recheck and do slight top up done... and done right

* be sure to check your filter after car has been driven ( after a decent drive) for minor leakage. if leaking just tighten it a bit with your hand. (dont leave it to long to check and tighten as heat will make rubber gasket go hard and will break seal and then you will have to replace filter again...)

* best to do it yourself in your own time because most mechanics (under a time scedule) wont let it sit to drain long enough, which leaves contaminated oil inside engine and will contaminate new oil.

If done correctly when driving (highway or freeway) your dash cluster oil pressure gauge should be on the 4 mark or very very close to.

any qustions please ask... cheers

Edited by 4drftn
  • 6 months later...

Ive heard a few people commenting that you should fill your filter full of oil before fitting.

Please people, this will only end up in a mess, esspecially on a skyline where the filter is at an arms reach.

Do not waste your time, Ive never heard of a filter "popping off" because of this.

yeah i wouldn't worry, it only takes a couple of seconds to get pressure, because the engine was already hot from when you drained it, there still should be a fair bit of oil hanging around on most components, and if you run an oil like motul with ester or royal purple with molyb, it tends to cling to the parts for a while anyway after shutdown, so you have some protection still even without pressure.

And make sure that the old oil filter seal isnt stuck on the engine when you change the filter, really makes a mess of your fire wall and leaves a hansell and gretel trail from your mates house where you did it all the way back to your house and then leaves the rest of the oil in a ig puddle on your drive way...... errrr .... so im told :D

Ive heard a few people commenting that you should fill your filter full of oil before fitting.

Please people, this will only end up in a mess, esspecially on a skyline where the filter is at an arms reach.

Do not waste your time, Ive never heard of a filter "popping off" because of this.

i put put abit of oil in and swish it around before installing. works for me. whether it does anything i dunno..ha

  • 2 weeks later...

Dont bother putting any oil into the filter before installing it. It does nothing except make a mess. However, you do need to place grease or oil around the seal to help it stick. Also, when you drain say 4.9L of 5L of oil, 100mL in the engine wont make much difference. Plus, do you guys change your sump plug washer everytime you change your oil? Otherwise it will leak. If you know exactly how much oil goes into the car, pour it all in. Then run the car until the oil light goes out, wait another 10 seconds then turn the car off and check the oil. There is no need for huge drives, just enough to pump oil around the engine. If the oil mark in a few millimetres from the "Full" position on the dipstick, leave it. The oil will drain back into the sump and fill that up. While you are draining the oil, go though and check the underside of your car as well. Steering boots, oil leaks, CV boots, fuel filter, that sort of thing. Once you have gone through and checked all that, then the oil will have finished draining. Don't bother about waiting for every tiny drop to come out, there will always be some left in there. Dont worry about contaminated oil too much though, that is what an oil filter is there for!!

And finally, DO NOT FORGET TO TIGHTEN THE SUMP PLUG!!!! A hand tightend sump plug will not leak straigt away, but within a few kms it will fall out and its goodbye oil, goodbye motor, big, big trouble! That is the most important step of the whole procedure!

highway cruizing (100km/h in 5th or top) is the only way to check true oil pressure, oil pressure will not build up on idle. its not something you have to do straight away, but it gives you a good indication of the oil quality etc. currently in the car.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • The average previous owner for these cars were basically S-chassis owners in the US. Teenagers or teenager-adjacent. I often tell people that neglect is easier to fix than something that was actively "repaired" by previous owners.
    • Update 3: Hi all It's been a while. Quite a lot of things happened in the meantime, among other things the car is (almost) back together and ready to be started again. Things that I fixed or changed: Full turbo removal, fitting back the OEM turbo oil hardlines. Had to do quite a bit of research and parts shopping to get every last piece that I need and make it work with the GT2860 turbos, but it does work and is not hard to do. Proves that the previous owner(s) just did not want to. While I was there I set the preload for the wastegates to 0,9bar to hopefully make it easier for the tuner to hit the 370hp I need for the legal inspections that will follow later on. Boost can always go up if necessary. Fitted a AN10 line from the catch can to the intake hose to make the catchcan and hopefully the cam covers a slight vacuum to have less restrictive oil returns from the head and not have mud build up as harshly in the lines and catch can. Removed the entire front interior just shy of the dashboard itself to clean up some of the absolutely horrendous wiring, (hopefully) fix the bumpy tacho and put in LED bulbs while I was there. Also put in bulbs where there was none before, like the airbag one. I also used that chance to remove the LED rpm gauge on the steering column, which was also wired in absolute horror show fashion. Moved the 4in1 Prosport gauge from sitting in front of the OEM oil pressure gauge to the center console vents, I used a 3D printed vent piece to hold that gauge there. The HKB steering wheel boss was likely on incorrectly as I sometimes noticed the indicator reset being uneven for left vs. right. In the meantime also installed an airbag delete resistor, as one should. Installed Cube Speed premium short shifter. Feels pretty nice, hope it'll work great too when I actually get to drive. Also put on a fancy Dragon Ball shift knob, cause why not. My buddy was kind enough to weld the rust hole in the back, it was basically rusted through in the lowermost corner of the passenger side trunk area where the wheel arch, trunk panel and rear quarter all meet. Obviously there is still a lot of crustiness in various areas but as long as it's not rusted out I'll just treat and isolate the corrosion and pretend it's not there. Also had to put down a new ground wire for the rear subframe as the original one was BARELY there. Probably a bit controversial depending on who you ask about this... but I ended up just covering the crack in the side of the engine block, the one above the oil feed, with JB Weld. I used a generous amount and roughed up the whole area with a Dremel before, so I hope this will hold the coolant where it should be for the foreseeable future. Did a cam cover gasket job as the half moons were a bit leaky, and there too one could see the people who worked on this car before me were absolute tools. The same half moons were probably used like 3 times without even cleaning the old RTV off. Dremeled out the inside of the flange where the turbine housing mates onto the exhaust manifolds so the diameter matches, as the OEM exhaust manifolds are even narrower than the turbine housings as we all know. Even if this doesn't do much, I had them out anyways, so can't harm. Ideally one would port-match both the turbo and the manifold to the gasket size but I really didn't feel up to disassembling the turbine housings. Wrapped turbo outlet dumps in heat wrap band. Will do the frontpipe again as well as now the oil leak which promted me to tear apart half the engine in the first place is hopefully fixed. Fitted an ATI super damper to get rid of the worn old harmonic balancer. Surely one of the easiest and most worth to do mods. But torquing that ARP bolt to spec was a bitch without being able to lock the flywheel. Did some minor adjustments in the ECU tables to change some things I didn't like, like the launch control that was ALWAYS active. Treated rusty spots and surface corrosion on places I could get to and on many spots under the car, not pretty or ideal but good enough for now. Removed the N1 rear spats and the carbon surrounding for the tailpipe to put them back on with new adhesive as the old one was lifting in many spots, not pretty. Took out the passenger rear lamp housing... what do you know. Amateur work screwed me again here as they were glued in hard and removing it took a lot of force, so I broke one of the housing bolts off. And when removing the adhesive from the chassis the paint came right off too. Thankfully all the damaged area won't be visible later, but whoever did the very limited bodywork on this car needs to have their limbs chopped off piece by piece.   Quite a list if I do say so myself, but a lot of time was spent just discovering new shit that is wrong with the car and finding a solution or parts to fix it. My last problem that I now have the headache of dealing with is that the exhaust studs on the turbo outlets are M10x1.25 threaded, but the previous owner already put on regular M10 nuts so the threads are... weird. I only found this out the hard way. So now I will just try if I can in any way fit the front pipe regardless, if not I'll have to redo the studs with the turbos installed. Lesson learned for the future: Redo ALL studs you put your hands on, especially if they are old and the previous owners were inept maniacs. Thanks for reading if you did, will update when the engine runs again. Hope nothing breaks or leaks and I can do a test drive.
    • No those pads are DBA too  but they have colors too. I look at the and imo the green "street" are the best.
    • I’m not sure what happened I told them about sonic tunes free OTS tune and the next the I know .. I was booted..   To funny 
×
×
  • Create New...