I know it’s not the conventional way, but it’s time to change the oil in my Mini and I’m rebelling against convention. Its 97° outside and driving around in that heat without air-conditioning is never fun, so I decided to forgo warming up the engine first, and I’m attempting my first cold engine oil change. Well, “cold” is a relative term. The engine is at room temperature in my air conditioned garage. I figure the last time I drove the car and then parked it, the engine cooled down and most of the oil in the head and block has drained down to the sump anyway, where it’s been sitting for at least a week. So it’s a pretty much matter of giving the sump enough time to completely drain the not-hot oil. I figure an overnight time period of 15 hours should be more than enough. If it’s still dribbling out tomorrow morning I will know that this was a bad idea. But I don’t think that’ll happen.
