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SBC 350 V8 - oil change do you use 5 or 4.5 quarts?

wazzabie

wazzabie

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When performing a motor oil change with filter how many quarts do you add?

The chevy manual states the pan and oil filter holds 5 quarts. I measured how much oil was drained and it was about 4.5 quarts. I added 4.5 quarts and checked the dipstick. There is no oil cooler on this chevy.
 
5 quarts with PF35 oil filter. Fill, start, off, check level, adjust as necessary
 
When I bought my GM 350 crate engine it came with a 4-Qt oil pan. I went and bought a Chines made stock replacement 5-Qt oil pan for it. Now it takes 6-Qt of oil to do an oil change. I wanted to buy a GM 5-Qt replacement pan, but GM no longer makes them. I had doubts about the Chines one, but works great...no leaks.

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Depends on pan sump size and oil filter size.
 
I'm sure that the 78 350 engine I have has the original oil pan. If the engine holds 5 quarts I wonder why I only need to add 4.5 quarts with engine oil and filter replace. I checked the dipstick and it is at full.
 
Also, make sure the truck is on level ground.
Also, start and run it for a minute or two then let it sit for a few minutes then recheck the dipstick.
 
wazzabie said:
I'm sure that the 78 350 engine I have has the original oil pan. If the engine holds 5 quarts I wonder why I only need to add 4.5 quarts with engine oil and filter replace. I checked the dipstick and it is at full.
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Don't sweat it, it'll leak and get burned up via the old valve guide seals...like every other 350
 
I use 5.

Now, I did watch the engine masters episode where they played with oil amounts, windage trays, all that good stuff. There was a lot of unexpected results.
They concluded that 4.5 was good for wringing absolutely every bit of power out of the engine.
 
I know a guy that didn't use dipsticks. He would just drain and fill the fluid with what ever quantity the book said. He had spent a bunch of money on a brand new car, so he decided to save cash by changing his own oil. After he changed the oil, the engine didn't run right. Then it started shifting weird. Then the car just died!

He had drained the oil out of the transmission, and then added several quarts of oil to the motor. Then he drove the manual transmission without fluid, and ran the motor so full on oil that it blew oil seals out and leaked all the oil out. Messed up the trans and locked up the motor. A brand new $20K paperweight.
 
Pre fill the filter first. That way you get immediate oil pressure. It will help in the long run. Lots of oil studies done about this. Contrary to what others may say.
 
Danimaldds said:
Pre fill the filter first. That way you get immediate oil pressure. It will help in the long run. Lots of oil studies done about this. Contrary to what others may say.
Click to expand...

I pre-fill my filters. I also activate the hidden anti-theft "kill switch" and crank it over for about 5 seconds. Then wait a minute, recheck the oil level, turn the switch back, and start the engine.
 
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