CurseTheSky
Diamond Member
So, I did an oil change in my 2001 Sport Trac today. It failed.
You know those dumb rookie mistakes that you shake your head at when you hear the stories from other people? The ones that never happen to you? Yeah, that happened to me today.
It was the first time I've changed the oil in the Sport Trac, and I thought that it was high enough off of the ground where I wouldn't need to jack it up. I was able to get under there fine, but it was obviously a bit tight and seeing what I was doing was the biggest issue. To make a long story short, I couldn't see the oil filter area very well, and like an idiot, I didn't check the old filter to make sure the gasket came off with it. I installed the new filter on top of the old gasket, and found out just how fast oil can come back out of your engine...
Everything is fine now, but there's a good amount of oil scattered all over the underside, including on the exhaust. I mopped up what I could with paper towels, but it's impossible to get the residue off of everything. I already took it for a half-mile test drive, and it smoked a decent amount. My biggest concern is something catching on fire.
I had one person say that it was fine and it would just burn off, and another recommend that I spray everything down with brake cleaner and wipe it off. I could spray the underside of the exhaust pipes / manifolds / cat, but getting to the top of the pipes is nearly impossible.
What do you guys recommend? Just leave it alone? Clean it up?
You know those dumb rookie mistakes that you shake your head at when you hear the stories from other people? The ones that never happen to you? Yeah, that happened to me today.
It was the first time I've changed the oil in the Sport Trac, and I thought that it was high enough off of the ground where I wouldn't need to jack it up. I was able to get under there fine, but it was obviously a bit tight and seeing what I was doing was the biggest issue. To make a long story short, I couldn't see the oil filter area very well, and like an idiot, I didn't check the old filter to make sure the gasket came off with it. I installed the new filter on top of the old gasket, and found out just how fast oil can come back out of your engine...
Everything is fine now, but there's a good amount of oil scattered all over the underside, including on the exhaust. I mopped up what I could with paper towels, but it's impossible to get the residue off of everything. I already took it for a half-mile test drive, and it smoked a decent amount. My biggest concern is something catching on fire.
I had one person say that it was fine and it would just burn off, and another recommend that I spray everything down with brake cleaner and wipe it off. I could spray the underside of the exhaust pipes / manifolds / cat, but getting to the top of the pipes is nearly impossible.
What do you guys recommend? Just leave it alone? Clean it up?
