AR7E - Alcester Racing 7's Equipe
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First, things first. A choice - if you run the engine for a while and warm the oil up, it will flow more freely from the engine and you will end up with less old oil in the system. However, on the downside, the oil and engine will be hot! So take care, or just play safe and leave a bit of dirty-oil behind... Then: Jack the car up* and place it on stands, front and rear. You will need a fair bit of space under the car. *Note - if you have an Apollo air-oil separator tank fitted, it is worth placing the axle stands underneath the front suspension pivots - as the conventional front-left stand position makes access to the tank rather difficult. If you do follow this suggestion, you *must* make sure that the car is especially stable - consider belt-and-bracing by placing wheel ramps/spare wheels under the car to reduce damage/injury in the event of the stands collapsing... It is a good idea to spread a disposable polythene dust-sheet (approx. £1 from B&Q) underneath the car in order to catch drips and spills... Remove the bonnet and undo the yellow oil-cap (helps the engine to drain). Sump PlugPlace an oil-drain can underneath the sump-plug as in the image below: Key: A - Oil-filter B - Sump Plug (19mm) C - oil-drain bottle. With the drain-bottle in place (with it's drain plug removed...), loosen the sump-plug with a 19mm socket. It is best not to completely undo it at first - get it finger loose and then with one hand on the plug, and the other on the drain-bottle, remove the plug and quickly move the bottle into the best position to catch the flow... Leave the bottle in situ until the flow is reduced to inconsequential drips. Replace the sump-plug loosely in order to avoid too much mess. Oil FilterNow, most of the oil will have been drained from the system - but the oil-filter is still full of it and there will also be some remaining in the pipework leading up to the filter. With your oil filter wrench, loosen -but do not remove - the filter. Reposition the drain-bottle (or get the second bottle if you prefer) and remove the filter completely. We recommend that the filter is up-ended onto the drain-bottle to empty it. When it is empty, place it in the box that the new filter came in, in preparation for disposal at your local recycling centre... Apollo Tank - if fittedRight - the important thing to recognise is that the Apollo oil-air separation tank is made of very thin-gauge aluminium and can easily be damaged - this is why we recommend using a 32mm bicycle spanner to brace the tank against the torque needed to remove the oil-drain plug at the bottom of the tank (see image below).
Key: A - 32mm spanner in situ B - 10mm allen-key drain plug C - Axle-stand - note proximity to tank In the image above, you will notice how close the axle-stand is to the Apollo tank. This stand is in the 'conventional' position - and this makes it very hard to get an oil-drain bottle close enough. The solution is to make make (or buy) a funnel (cardboard works OK) to direct the oil-flow into a nearby drain-bottle. Brace the tank with the 32mm spanner and loosen the drain-plug - as usual, do not fully remove it yet, just get it finger loose. Get your funnel/cardboard in place (if necessary), and remove the plug - there should be a good half-litre or more of oil in the tank. When this is drained, take a look at the inside of the oil-plug as below:
Unlike the sump-plug, the Apollo plug is magnetic and should attract any small shavings of metal from the engine. If the engine is fairly new, you might find quite a bit of metal 'fluff' in the plug - but the picture above is from a 15k engine that last had an oil-change 5-6k ago. The picture isn't brilliant, but there is very little debris in the plug - good news! Clean the plug with some kitchen towel or similar (and the base of the Apollo tank) before applying a *little* Blue Hylomar (or liquid-gasket goo) to the mating surface of the plug (not to the threads...) and replace. The liquid-gasket should do the hard-work of sealing the tank - so the plug shouldn't need to be tightened too much (finger-tight plus a bit...) At the same time, clean and refit the sump-plug - we use a little Blue Hylomar here too - although the sump-plug does have a sealing washer. Big Oil-Change - optional tasksAt this stage, if you are intending to complete a 'big' oil change, drop the sump and change the foam-baffle. Instructions are ....here Otherwise, continue as follows: Oil-FilterRight, with both Apollo and sump-plugs back in place, it's time to start putting the car back together. First-up, we are going to pre-fill the oil-filter before replacement.
Pour in fresh oil until the filter is approximately 1/2 to 2/3rds full. Wipe a little fresh oil around the rubber gasket, as above. Offer the filter up to the filter-plate and screw it home by hand until the gasket just touches the filter-plate - then give it a 3/4 turn more (by hand - tools are not necessary). Refill OilAfter double-checking that the sump and Apollo plugs are in place and suitably tightened - AND that you've fitted the oil-filter, you can start refilling the engine through the oil-cap on top of the engine. If you've got an Apollo tank, you can comfortably pour in 6* litres straight off (*or 6.5 if you dropped the sump) before refitting the oil-cap and starting the engine. Check that the oil pressure (OP) comes up as normal (to approx. 75psi /4.5 Bar at idle with cold oil) and check all the sump/Apollo plugs and oil-filter for leaks. With an Apollo tank, the oil-level is checked with the engine running and with the oil hot - if you don't have an oil-temp gauge, leave the engine running preferably until the radiator fan kicks in - or at least 5 minutes in any case. By this time, the OP will probably have dropped to the 60psi/4bar mark (or thereabouts), and you can start to recheck the oil level. You are aiming to get the level close to the 'max' mark - if it is not there, stop the engine, remove the filler cap, add a *little* more oil (it's easier to creep up to the max level rather than deal with the consequences of an over-fill), replace the cap, restart the engine, wait for a minute or so for the oil to join the party and then recheck. Once you are happy with the level and with the fact that you have no leaks, you can pack everything away and go for a drive. You should recheck the oil-level after the first few drives (again, with engine hot and running on level ground) just to make sure all is OK. Job done! Back to: Oil-Change: Materials or On to:Sump removal |
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