OCI gone wrong

[pbm]

My brother called me today all excited because he screwed up an oil change.
He had just changed the oil in his 2009 Mazda 2.3 and went to get his gallon of distilled water to top
up his coolant surge tank...(I've been teaching him basic maintenance in order to save him some bucks)
His cell phone rang and distracted him and he inadvertently poured a few ounces of the water into the funnel
that was still in the oil fill hole...(he said about 4 ozs....6 at most).
I advised him to drain it out and put in new oil but not a new filter since he never started the engine with
the watered down oil. Should this be enough or should he change it out earlier than usual?
Thoughts?
He drained the unused Valvoline synthetic 5w20 into a clean container...will the water settle out and be able to be used again or should he just dump it?
Thanks...

 

[Propflux01]

New oil. Drive for 30 minutes minimum at highway speeds.

 

[pbm]

Originally Posted by Propflux01
New oil. Drive for 30 minutes minimum at highway speeds.


Yes...I told him to drain out the contaminated oil and he did....I'm just wondering if the new oil would also be
slightly contaminated...he poured a few ounces of fresh oil in before draining it to 'rinse' the water down.

I know the water will settle to the bottom of the drained oil so maybe he could reuse it (on the next OC) if he's careful when pouring it into the engine...it would be a shame to throw away 4.5 quarts of unused synthetic?

 

[bbhero]

Just me...

But I would recycle the potentially contaminated synthetic oil. No sense in taking any chances..

Kind of like giving IV medications... Almost always better or safer to go slower than faster. Being judicious is the better way to go.

Exceptions being in code circumstances. Totally another ball game at that point.

 

[Railrust]

I'd just change the oil and not worry about it. [censored] some will say you can leave the water in there and it'll burn off in a long trip...and they may be right. Not sure what type of damage - if any - 4oz of water will do in a sump that probably holds five quarts of oil. I imagine on a cold winter morning an engine creates quite a bit of water in that crankcase. My oil catch can looks like the oil is mixed with a lot of water in the winter...in the summer, not so much.

But I wouldn't chance it.

 

[Lolvoguy]

When in doubt, change it out.

Next time tell him to leave his cell phone in the house.
Less chance of getting distracted.

 

[pitzel]

I would drain the oil into a clean container (cleaning the drain area very carefully to avoid contamination), let it settle in the container, skim off as much of the water as possible, and then pour it back into the engine.

Motor oil deals with minor water contamination all the time. Its no big deal.

 

[Lubener]

Originally Posted by Propflux01
New oil. Drive for 30 minutes minimum at highway speeds.

You won't burn 6 ounces right away by just doing that, I would drain and refill.

 

[Propflux01]

Originally Posted by Lubener
Originally Posted by Propflux01
New oil. Drive for 30 minutes minimum at highway speeds.

You won't burn 6 ounces right away by just doing that, I would drain and refill.

Uh.. that's what I told him. New oil, and run for 30 minutes (to remove any remaining water).

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Oil will float on water, the water will come out the drain plug first.

Water is a byproduct of combustion and is in the CC in various % depending on ambient temps and sump temp over time.

I cannot see this "mistake" being made by a sober individual.

 

[pbm]

Originally Posted by Lolvoguy
When in doubt, change it out.

Next time tell him to leave his cell phone in the house.
Less chance of getting distracted.



LOL...I can't laugh at him too much because back in the mid 1970's when I first started driving I made a similar 'distracted' mistake.
I was changing the oil on my first car (a 1968 Firebird with the OHC 6 cylinder...a real POS) on the street in my NYC neighborhood.
A friend walked by and started a conversation and I absentmindedly poured a 1 gallon container of oil into it without replacing the oil pan plug.
When oil appeared at my feet I realized my mistake....I wasted a gallon (metal container) of Wolf's Head 10w30.
The good thing was that the park was right across the street so I was able to shovel plenty of dirt (soil) on the spill to absorb it and then sweep it up and discard it before it entered the sewer system.

Thanks for the replies....I road over to his house yesterday evening and observed that the drained oil had some water settle on the bottom....we poured it back in the 5qt. container carefully and it seems to be water free....probably use it in another family members beater....

PS: The oil that replaced the Valvoline Syn. was ST syn. because that's what he had on hand....

 

[old1]

When I was like 20 (a century ago) I pulled a similar stunt with my 6 cylinder 64 chev. I was not thinking, and dumped about 1/2 quart of straight antifreeze in the oil. I cussed, and said well I am not gonna drain the new oil out, so I just ran it that way. Never seemed to hurt anything, Of course engines were a lot simpler then.

 

[JLTD]

Originally Posted by Propflux01
New oil. Drive for 30 minutes minimum at highway speeds.


Yep, glad you already did the drain… Hopefully he went out on the highway because some water remained.

As far as the old oil with the water in it, sounds OK to use since you made sure that there was no water in it.

 

[atikovi]

Originally Posted by pbm
he inadvertently poured a few ounces of the water into the funnel
that was still in the oil fill hole...(he said about 4 ozs....6 at most).


That engine probably puts that much condensation into the oil when starting on a cold day. An hour or two of driving will get it out good enough.

 

[drew2two]

"I cannot see this "mistake" being made by a sober individual."
Once had a woman come into the shop with a 4 cylinder mustang, she had tried to top off the radiator but instead had filled the engine right to the top with antifreeze! This was back when engines where naked and had the oil cap at the front of the valve cover, not all that far from the radiator cap.