Being close enough to its 3,500 mile interval mark, it was time to cycle the dinosaur juice. However, this time it would be like no other; unless you count that one time I forgot to put back the crush washer. Due to “oil change specials” it is often more affordable to pick up a 5 qt. jug and just return the cheap filter at a later date than it is to purchase the units individually. Normally I fill the one quart container three times and then do some math to measure out the last 0.6 qt. and what’s left gets put away for the future.
Except for this time when all was said and done, there was only a tiny bit of oil left in the big jug. Now I know what you’re thinking, and if your Common Core is up to date: The CLM takes 3.6 quarts of oil and if we start out with 5 quarts of oil and then take away one quart of oil three times and then take away another six-tenths of a quart; we should have way more than just one quart remaining.
With an autocross coming tomorrow, and after driving a few miles to see how bad it sounded we read somewhere on the internet how Spec-Miata racers run half a quart low because “racecar”. In the end, one of the bigger containers was sacrificed in the event the oil was to be reused and my hands ended up covered in oil (at least it was clean[ish]), and the Miata now benefits from a fresh partial oil flush.
