Sunday, May 22, 2005

The Revenge of the Oil Change

While the gunk was gushing out of the oil pan this afternoon, I got a souvenir, a huge oily stain on my nice clean driveway. Luckily, I managed to contain the mess to under the truck. So it should be a lot of fun to work underneath the truck until I get it moving again.

After watching the fluids pour out, I headed out to buy some oil and a filter. The filter on the truck is no longer available but I got the filter that replaced it. No one at the parts store seemed to know that. They were insistent that the new filter was the right one and that I must have misread the number off of the old filter.

After checking with the 67-72ChevyTrucks.com forums, I installed the filter. I shopped for oil at the auto parts store, but I ended up at Costco to buy.

The truck will not be getting a taste of the $5 a quart, Mobil One that goes into the van. It did get a nice drink of Shell 10W30 that Costco had for $1.10 a quart, though. And at that price, it will be drinking more of it in the future.

I got some advice that the fuel in the oil was likely caused by a bad fuel pump. So I added 'Fuel Pump' to the list of things to get done before the truck runs again. And if I am changing that, I want to put in an inline fuel filter and change the steel gasline to the carburator. So those were added to the list, too. But 'Oil Change' got crossed off of the list, so in the end, not a bad day. I made a little progress and did not spend much money.

6 comments:

Rick said...

The steel line to the fuel pump on my truck was a bear to replace. Even with the engine torn down. I ended up putting some steel line at each end and rubber fuel line in the middle.

My advice: If it isn't really broke, don't fix.

As for the oil on the driveway, head on over to HD and get a bottle of Zep Degreaser. It comes in a spray bottle(~$5) and a gallon jug(~$10). I bought the spray bottle to start with because it was cheaper. When it ran out I got the jug and now use the jug to refill the spray bottle.

Spray some on the oily surface. If the surface is textured you may want to scrub on it with a stiff brush. They wipe it off. This will make a huge difference! I bought this stuff after draining a few quarts of transmission fluid on my garage floor. In the garage, it didn't remove all the color, but it no longer has an oily feel. I believe all the color that remains is now below the surface. (Power washer perhaps).

This Zep stuff works on any greasy/oily surface you have on th e truck as well. It made some old greasy hoses look brand new.

Try it on your fuel line too.

[End of Commercial]

Mike said...

The compression fitting on the carb end is almost wrecked. I guess grandpa never kept a real wrench sitting around. Looks like he attacked it with Vice Grips.

The fuel pump end ha a lot of surface rust, but maybe I can clean it up when I change out the pump. We shall see.

Mike said...

And my secret for the driveway?

A scoop of laundry soap powder mixed into a bunch of kitty litter. Let it sit for days on the stain and attack it with a garden hose or pressure washer.

Clean,cheap and we always have these things on hand.

(But my dream is that someday I'll only need kitty litter for the driveway...)

Darth Daddy said...

In my 77 Chrysler hearse, when it sat for over 3 days, it took forever to start(fuel related. I eventually got a $5 seethrough glass in line fuel filter (gotta love Ebay!!). I wasnt that interested in cleaning the fuel, but now I can actually SEE if the fuel is reaching the carb (I installed it a foot out from the carb). If you have a choice, Id recommend getting a fuel filter that you can see thru.

Shannon

Darth Daddy said...

PS. Kitty litter for the oil spill. ANd Id suggest, when chaning the oil again..get an old cardboard box, and a garbage bag. Open the bag, put it in the box (overlapping the edges), and slip it under the oil filter when changing the oil. It'l catch alot of spillage.

Anonymous said...

If you have the metal gas tank, you could be picking up rust from the tank and damaging your fuel pump. I had two fuel pumps broken because of this and both times my oil pan was full of oilf and gas.