Time For A Change

Thanks to some gracious donations from K&N for our team being participants in this year’s Optima Search for the Ultimate Street Car Invitational and SEMA show we can finally change the oil in our Z06.

We already detailed out to jack up the Corvette Z06 in an earlier post (Get Jacked). After all that nonsense is done, all you will need is a K&N PS-1017 filter, a ratchet and a 15 millimeter socket. Oh, and also some Black Ops Brewery Valor IPA to help this project along.

On the Z06’s LS7 engine you will need to remove two separate drain plugs.

Remember, this a big mother of an engine and that means it has a lot of oil in it, like 8 quarts worth of oil. That means you need a big mother of a catch pan. Use one that has a large enough diameter to catch streams from both oil drain plugs and the filter (which leaks a lot when removed). Also a word of caution: that catalytic converter is hot as hell! Watch it when trying to use your hand to remove the filter. If you burn your hand, drink more Black Ops Brew.

Once everything is drained and you have a fresh K&N oil filter in place (tightened to 18 foot-pounds) and your TWO (don’t forget one of them) drain plugs are back in, then you can think about adding some fresh dinosaur blood.

Adding 8 quarts of 5W-30 synthetic oil and trying to keep track of how many you put in, especially after drinking a lot of Black Ops Brewing ale, is difficult. In order to keep accurate track of how much is in the engine, we number each bottle.

The labeling is important because you can’t simply use the dip stick to see if you have put enough oil in the motor. This is a dry sump system. The dip stick only goes into the reservoir and the owner’s manual states the engine and oil has to be at 175 degrees, then you shut the engine off and wait 5 minutes in order to get an accurate reading. That means you definitely need to know how many quarts you put in. The instructions are to put 7 quarts in, start the engine for 15 seconds and then add the 8th quart.

Its more economical to purchase the larger 5 quart bottle of oil, as opposed to 5 separate bottles, worth about 8-10 bucks in savings. That will require you to do some math as you are ensuring you don’t underfill or overfill the engine. We will still use our quart numbering process (because we suck at math), so we just label the big bottle #5 and continue on from there, #6, #7, and #8.

Sure, you could try to use a steady hand and pour eight quarts of oil into the dry sump tank, but realistically you’ll end up pouring a lot of oil down the fender. Use a funnel, dude. There’s no shame in it. Remember, put the opening of the bottle at the top while pouring, it keeps the flow from chugging and spilling dinosaur blood all over the engine compartment.

Once you have your initial seven quarts in, close the dry sump tank and start the car for 15 seconds. Than add your final 8th quart and start the car again for 15 seconds. Cap off the dry sump tank and we are almost done.

Once your oil is changed you need to reset the engine oil life percentage display. Here is how you do it using the buttons on the right side of your gauge cluster:

Press the Trip Button, over and over again until “OIL LIFE PERCENTAGE” is displayed.
Press and hold the Reset button for two seconds.
Your oil life percentage will now say “100%.”

Now run the engine to operating temperature (175 degrees), shut the engine off, wait five minutes, and check the oil using the yellow dip stick at the dry sump tank. You should be good to go as long as you were able to count to eight.