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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