Do you like your oil changes like you like your gezpacho?

What I mean is, do  you change your oil when it's cold or hot?
I've always changed mine hot or warm. If nothing else, driving it around the block to get into my back yard, then idling while I set up ramps, and getting it up on ramps gets the oil warm. Of course, if the car has been driving recently, it'll be hot.  

But now I'm talking about my zero turn. It's sitting in the shop. It doesn't have to move at all for me to change the oil. In school I was told to change the oil hot so it flows better (makes perfect sense) and any contaminants from the top of the engine will be washed down to the oil pan. That last one doesn't really make sense. Logically the contaminants will have drained down to the pan anyway. But I think the lower viscosity of the warm oil will help the pan, or in this case, the case drain better. 

All of that being said, I'll warm the engine before I change it because it doesn't feel right not to. But the question is, do you intentionally change your oil only when it's warm, or just pull the plug and go get a beer? 

Just curious, wanted to see what a bunch of other gear heads thought.

I always warm engines up. It flows better, and the particulates will be in suspension in the oil. At work (I work at a dealership), if a vehicle was left overnight in the winter, I'll remote start it and warm it up before bringing it in the shop, or I'll pick it up and rotate the tires and check everything over while it idles, then shut it off and change the oil.

If I'm draining it, cold.  If I'm doing an RX-7 at home, I punch a hole in the filter and drain it/change the filter the next day. (Assuming that I change the filter, that's a once a year operation)

If I'm using a fluid evacuator, hot.

If there's enough debris in the oil that it makes a difference if the oil is cold or hot, you don't need an oil change, you need an engine overhaul.

Was explaining this to my 10 year old daughter just last night!

Many different opinions in all things oil related but i think it blends better with my hair and also tastes slightly better when medium warm to pretty hot in temp range... usually spill a bit of used oil somewhere it doesn't belong each time and personally cold always seems worse?

Just warm.  If I let it run long enough to be HOT oil, you know it's gonna run down your arm.  

Warm, only because if I am pulling it in and putting it on ramps, it'll be warm anyway.  I don't think I've ever deliberately warmed up a car in order to change the oil though.

My rule is always change it warm because I've heard that's best.  Not sure where it came from, but it feels deeply ingrained over the years, from a long-ago time immemorial. 

Mostly about getting the dirty stuff out.  I had an acquaintance who would always leave the vehicle dripping overnight, reasoning that "the dirtiest oil is the last few drops to drain out."  Not sure how valid that is, but that's what he believed, and he lived it.

Edit:  I didn't know warmed gazpacho was a thing.  Given what it is, I prefer mine cold.  But it's not something I eat often. 

I think warm is the worst.  Cold, everything has run down into the pan during the cooling period.  It will dribble for a long time, though. Hot, The oil will drain back quickly, come out quickly, and cause third degree burns.  Warm, you have enough time to pump dirty oil up to the top of the engine, but not enough time to all drain back to the pan.

Or, like Pete says, if there is enough junk to need thorough draining, the engine probably needs to come out.

Hot gazpacho is referred to as "winter gazpacho" which seems super weird and beside the entire point of gazpacho since it's a raw soup.

Anyway, for modern cars with high quality oils, I feel like cold is fine. Most of mine are done at lease warm since the decision to do an oil change rarely begins with a car cold on the lift, and i think that's a perfectly acceptable option as well. I do subscribe to the "let it drip for a long time" school of oil changes as well.

For power equipment, that stuff I tend to try and do hot or at least warm. Some of that stuff doesn't have filters (like the excavator) so I feel like that's the best way to suspend any dirt or particulate matter in the oil and flush it out of the crankcase.

Warm-to-hot. I won't make it hot enough to burn myself, but it seems to flow better, and yeah, I think having the soot-derived shmoo floating in suspension in the oil is better than having it sit on the bottom of the pan. Pete, you're probably right though--it shouldn't matter because there shouldn't be anything there of consequence to begin with--I'm just thinking about the sludge accumulation over time.

Also, Gazpacho is gross.

I just had excellent gazpacho on Valentines Day at a very good Spanish restaurant.

I don't think hot gazpacho is even a real thing.

I tried gazpacho once. I thought; if you popped this in the microwave for 2 minutes, it would actually be pretty good. 

Isn't hot Gazpacho just tomato soup? Dip some grilled cheese in there, and you've got yourself a good winter lunch.

Appleseed said:

Go back to Russia! 

I've never had gazpacho, didn't even know people warmed it up.  I was playing on the cold vs warm thing.
Like others have said, I usually do it warm because the car isn't already sitting on ramps or a lift, so getting it there will get the oil warm, and because it was ingraned in my during my schooling that it needs to be warm to keep crap in suspension.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the zero turn. Will I drain the gazpacho, or warm it up before I drain it........

 Cold.

Like Hank Hill I change it every 5,000 miles or whenever I get bored, which ever comes first. That's probably frequently enough that I'm not concerned about getting everything out.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

If I'm draining it, cold.  If I'm doing an RX-7 at home, I punch a hole in the filter and drain it/change the filter the next day. (Assuming that I change the filter, that's a once a year operation)

I have found that unscrewing the filter until it's finger loose also drains it. Not sure how long it takes but it's empty by the time I drain and refill the sump. 

In reply to j_tso :

Touch the filter on one of mine and it pours oil all over the engine.  The only time it doesn't is if it sat all winter.

When I got my first RX-7, I used to leave the car in gear so I could spin the driveshaft to rotate the engine backwards a lot, to slosh the oil out of the rotors and pump the oil back out of the cooler.  I was so anal retention about maintenance   To be fair, there's something like 6.5 quarts in the system and a change only gets 4.

Doesn't matter with modern synthetic 5W or even 0W oils, and cold at least won't burn you.

With my old flat tappet cars running 20W50, it would take a week to get it all drained out if I didn't get it hot first!

DrBoost said:

I've never had gazpacho, didn't even know people warmed it up.  I was playing on the cold vs warm thing...

I'm not sure what I'll do with the zero turn. Will I drain the gazpacho, or warm it up before I drain it........

We knew what you meant. That's why this is now partly a discussion about soup. 

Since you're talking about a zero turn, which may not have a filter, I'd go for warming the thing up first. That's what I do. But also, since it's a lawn mower, I mean... you know... you could just never change it like most people. As long as you say, into the ether, "I am pretty sure I changed the oil last season, and it only needs to be changed every other season", at the beginning of every season, it'll just keep running.

confuZion3 said:

DrBoost said:

I've never had gazpacho, didn't even know people warmed it up.  I was playing on the cold vs warm thing...

We knew what you meant. That's why this is now partly a discussion about soup. 

Since you're talking about a zero turn, which may not have a filter, I'd go for warming the thing up first. That's what I do. But also, since it's a lawn mower, I mean... you know... you could just never change it like most people. As long as you say, into the ether, "I am pretty sure I changed the oil last season, and it only needs to be changed every other season", at the beginning of every season, it'll just keep running.

I wasn't 100% sure. But let's continue down the soup path.

A good chicken tortilla or cheesy potato soup is amazing. But living in SW Florida has kinda taken some of the joy out of a bowl of hot soup.

I change it after it has been good and hot, but let it cools down a bit.