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Re: [Healeys] Oil Changing Questions

To: healeys@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Oil Changing Questions
From: Editorgary@aol.com
Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 01:24:56 EDT
Regarding that little cotter-pin sticking through the hole in the bell 
housing -- hard to believe in today's world, but that is the best of British 
just-make-it-work engineering in the day. Starting at the back of the crank, 
what keeps the oil inside the engine, given that they didn't have a good way 
to seal a shaft spinning at up to 5,000 rpm, is a "reverse archimedes screw" 
which acts like a screw pump, constantly acting to throw oil passing out 
along the rear of the crankshaft back into the sump. That along with the slight 
negative pressure keeps the oil inside while you're running along the road. 
However, when you shut down, the change in pressure, and the curtailment of 
the pump action of the reverse screw means that a tiny little bit of oil is 
going to seep out of the rear of the crank opening and into the tranny bell 
housing. 
Since the oil has got to go somewhere, they drilled a little hole in the 
bottom so it would have a place to leak out. However, since any oily hole in 
the bottom of the car is going to get gunked over with dirt over time, they 
put the cotter-pin into the hole to keep the hole clear. 
So the cotter pin is a "good thing" and a little (tablespoonful) of oil 
dripping out when you park the car is within specifications.

Now, as to the question of whether to fill the new oil filter? I'm amazed 
at David Nock's advice. No, you don't HAVE to fill the oil filter before 
attaching it. You can rely on the engine oil pump to EVENTUALLY push oil 
through 
the filter and into the rest of the engine. Or you can fill the filter 
first, so that oil is forced into the top of the engine almost immediately when 
you start it up for the first time on an oil change.

If you really like to sit there, as many old school mechanics often do, and 
listen to the engine run dry, with the oil pressure at zero, for the time 
it takes to get most of a quart of oil into the filter and then through it 
into the rest of the engine, go ahead. Or you can be ultra careful and first 
fill the filter before attaching it (the trick is to remove the entire 
fixture off the side of the engine, change the filter, make sure everything is 
neatly sealed up again, and then reattach the filter, canister, and fitting to 
the side of the engine. Then you can remove the spark plugs
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