The first time I changed oil in a car was when I was sixteen and working in a gas station. Before that, I’d never even seen it done. I became an expert, though, and have always been responsible for one, two, or three vehicles. I may have done a hundred oil changes, but none approaches the oil change I’ve been working on for two weeks.<\/p>\n
It’s coming soon, the first oil change in my “new” work van, a 2006 GMC Savana. I bought it on December 1st and the onboard computer has studied my habits and announced that I need an oil change. But this won’t be just any oil change, no sir! This one-ton truck’s Duramax diesel engine costs a fortune to replace, and a properly maintained diesel can last nearly forever, so I’m giving this project everything I’ve got. Logistically, it’s starting to remind me of plans for the invasion at Normandy on D-Day.<\/p>\n
It began by reading extensively at the Diesel Place web site. Through recommendations there and study elsewhere, I decided on Schaeffer’s Supreme 9000<\/a> synthetic oil. Schaeffer is the oldest oil company in America. Most of the Conestoga wagons had Schaeffer grease on their axles. I found a good deal on the Internet and a case of twelve quarts (and shipping) set me back $82.69. That’s $6.89\/qt.<\/p>\n Possibly the finest oil filter<\/a> is made by the Amsoil company. With a $22.67 price tag, it should be.<\/p>\n I also purchased a doo-dad called a Fumoto valve<\/a>. It replaces the threaded plug in your oil pan and makes it possible to drain your oil by just turning a lever. Somebody should have thought of this ninety years ago. Shipping and all, $31.81.<\/p>\n These days you can send off a sample of your used oil to have it analyzed by a chemical lab. That’s what real diesel devotees do, so I got Blackstone Labs<\/a> to send me a kit so I can find out how my engine, filters, and oil have been holding up. It only costs $22.50 plus $2.00 postage.<\/p>\n The Savana has a two-stage fuel filtering<\/a> process, and the fuel filters on a diesel are very important. Dirty fuel can wreck your engine and it is time to change my filters, so I got a good deal on the Internet and had the filters and o-rings shipped here for a total price of only $73.74.<\/p>\n Adding these all together, I get $235.41; but if I have two quarts left over, that knocks off nearly fourteen bucks! And I suppose one might not count the fuel filters, so maybe this little oil change is really only costing $147.89, plus labor. (I wonder how much I should pay myself?)<\/p>\n I’m pursuing something called “extended oil drain intervals.” That is, I’m going to see how long I can go without changing my oil. The used oil analysis tells no lies, and it is quite possible to go hundreds of thousands of miles<\/a> before needing an oil change. If so, then I should come out ahead financially one day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first time I changed oil in a car was when I was sixteen and working in a gas station. Before that, I’d never even seen it done. I became an expert, though, and have always been responsible for one, two, or three vehicles. I may have done a hundred oil changes, but none approaches … Continue reading “MY GREATEST OIL CHANGE”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p45dxY-2t","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![two-stage fuel filtering<\/a> process, and the fuel filters on a diesel are very important. Dirty fuel can wreck your engine and it is time to change my filters, so I got a good deal on the Internet and had the filters and o-rings shipped here for a total price of only $73.74.<\/p>\nAdding these all together, I get $235.41; but if I have two quarts left over, that knocks off nearly fourteen bucks! And I suppose one might not count the fuel filters, so maybe this little oil change is really only costing $147.89, plus labor. (I wonder how much I should pay myself?)<\/p>\nI’m pursuing something called “extended oil drain intervals.” That is, I’m going to see how long I can go without changing my oil. The used oil analysis tells no lies, and it is quite possible to go hundreds of thousands of miles<\/a> before needing an oil change. If so, then I should come out ahead financially one day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first time I changed oil in a car was when I was sixteen and working in a gas station. Before that, I’d never even seen it done. I became an expert, though, and have always been responsible for one, two, or three vehicles. I may have done a hundred oil changes, but none approaches … Continue reading “MY GREATEST OIL CHANGE”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p45dxY-2t","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.barleyservices.biz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/www.cgenterprises.com\/fuelfilters\/TP1537.jpg\"){kind=link}