Gymnastics or Yoga

KevL

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At present my 5.7L Mercruiser doesn’t need an oil change but all this talk of liquid black gold got me thinking. With this engine being based on a small block chevy I assume that that the oil is drained out through a drain plug in the sump. Now this begs the question, how on earth do you get to the sump and what the hell are you supposed to catch the oil with down there in that oh so small space. It seems to me that the only way to reach down there is to do a handstand in the engine compartment or maybe get a strong pal to hold me upside down by my ankles. The only time I have ever seen anything as remotely stupid as this is when I had to replace the lower steering column UJ on an Esprit but that is hardly what I call routine maintenance. Kinda reminds me of the jokes about Fiat mechanics needing to be double jointed.

Or is there an easier way?

Kev
 

longjohnsilver

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You can buy a small electric pump with a pipe designed to fit down through the dipstick hole which will do the job. They're about £25 and I bought mine from one of the large chandlers. It's also useful for cars or anything else that you need to pump through a small bore.
 

byron

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£sd. Why? the next thing you'll be telling me is that the EEC have forced us to put 100 pennies to the pound instead of 240.
What's next? 100 secs to a minute? 100 minutes to the hour.
I suppose you'll kid me that the Environment Agency put up
signs on the waterways in Kilometers per hour instead of Knots per hour... what foolishness is this? ;-)

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Guest

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Pumping it out through the dipstick is the answer. Some engines fit oil changing pumps but not dear old Volvo. I tried using a hand pump but its messy, takes forever and you end up with blisters on the fingers. I got a little electric job from one of the marine chandlers which is purpose made and did the job fine. They are not expensive but remember

a) take the boat out for a dash round the bay to get the engines properly warm. Running them at fast tickover in the marina does not heat the oil enough to make it flow easily.
b) when using such a pump, pour a little oil into it down the exit pipe to prime it before starting. Otherwise it can't raise enough suck to lift the oil.
c) A change on a TAMD 41 took about twenty minutes so run it for no more than ten minutes at a time and allow a cool down period in order to avoid burning out the motor.

Nick
 

jfm

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Re: decimalisation

Agree with you Byron. And remeber you have to change your compass rose card to 100degrees by 1 Jan 2002 to comply with EEC directive
 

KevL

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Pumping the oil out through the dipstick hole seems obvious really but having not had to do this yet I didn't know. However what I do have sitting in my "It'll come in handy for something one day" section of my garage (most of it!) are a couple of diaphram pumps from wet wash vacuume cleaners which are suitable for pumping almost any liquid bar sulphuric acid. Also in that very same section are various lenghts and sizes of pneumatic airline tubing which is also oil resistant, all I have to do is attach one to the other.

Thanks for the help.

Kev
 

eddieperkins

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I got a vacume pump that fits onto the dipstick or oil drain pipe, a few pumps to suck the air out of the container and the oil flows into it as good as gold. Very clean, very easy and reasonably quick. Cost around £30 if I remember correctly.
Regards,
Eddie
 
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bob_tyler

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Re: decimalisation

Byron mustn't forget that by EU dictact all his transactions in Euros will be renamed Eurines from Jan 1!
 
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