It was a Monday winter morning when a kid named Jacob went in his garage to work on his car. Jacob always loved cars as a kid. His love for cars started when his dad gave him his first lawnmower to work on when he was 8 years old. Once he learned the basics (small engine repair) he loved engines and cars. He needed to do an oil change along with a valve cover gasket because his car was leaking oil. Jacob owned a 1993 Mazda MX-5 Miata. He bought the car off craigslist for $800 and had his mind set on turning it into a drift car and going to drift events once the spring comes around.  When he walked into the garage it was very cold indeed. When it was cold he was always thinking about the summer time drift events when it was too hot to even stand in the sun. Jacob loved to drift with his friend Dan, they always loved working on their cars and driving them around the streets for fun getting ready for drift events. The thermometer was reading 34 degrees Fahrenheit. Jacob hated the cold with a passion. The only thing jacob liked about the cold was the snow. He didn't even like snow that much, the only thing he liked it for was snow drifting. Jacob and Dan always went snow drifting when it was snowy, it was one of their favorite things to do. Jacob went to the back corner of the garage and fired up the oil burning furnace for heat. He set the temperature to 70 degrees fahrenheit. He left and came back an hour later once the garage was warm enough to work without freezing his hands.

When he came back he was with Dan. He told Dan to get the jack stands and jack to begin the oil change. This was a nice garage he was working in. It wasn't his it was his fathers because his father loved building cars for a hobby. The garage had every tool you could imagine, engine hoist, welders, heat, electricity, and a whole bunch of power tools. The only thing it lacked was a hydraulic car life making some jobs a little challenging. He positioned the jack under the subframe of the car because if you put a jack in any random spot you could severely damage something. Jacob had made that mistake before when he bent one of his control arms and screwed up the CV joint. Once the jack was positioned right he jacked the front of the car up give or take a foot off the ground. Once the car was the right height he grabbed the jack stands and placed them under the frame of the car. He slowly twisted the jack handle left to release the hydraulic pressure which would lower the car slowly on the jack stands. Once the car was on the jack stands he gave it a little shake to make sure it was secure so he could go under the car safely. It was secure alright so he grabbed a 16mm wrench and began to go at the oil drain plug under the car. When he looked at it he said, “man it's so goddamn rusty I hope it doesn't snap”. Taking precautions he went over to the aerosol can drawer and grabbed a can of PB Blaster and Brake cleaner which is the stuff you use to get seized and rusted bolts unstuck. He gave the drain plug a generous squirting of brake cleaner and PB blaster then let it work its way in for a minute. After it sat he grabbed the 16mm wrench and began to loosen the plug. He tried as hard as he could and it was still seized in place. Then he gave it another go, grunting and using all his strength then SNAP! The bolt broke off and the rusted end was stuck in the oil pan. “GOD DAMMIT” he screamed then chucked the wrench across the room shattering a light bulb in the ceiling. That was enough for one day so he left the shop and came back the next day.

The next day he came back and did his usual routine of turning the heat on and waiting for it to warm up. Once the garage was warmed up he went over to his drill bit drawer. He grabbed an easy out. An easy out is a tapered drill bit with reverse catching threads so he could put it in the stuck bolt, turn the tool left, catch the stuck bolt with the reverse catching threads, then back it the rest of the way out. He decided to go slow and take his time so he used a 3/8in ratchet instead. He begun to use the easy out and lubed it up with motor oil so it wouldn't get too hot and damage something. He turned the ratchet left and started to catch the broken bolt. He put more and more pressure on the ratchet but instead of catching the rusty bolt and pulling it out it just kept breaking up more and more. Eventually it just started to damage the threads and he realized he was screwed and had to remove the oil pan and use a tap and dye. He was furious, he had to leave for a few hours and come back. Once he came back to the garage he realized he couldn't pull the oil pan until the oil was drained from the motor. Then he decided to take a drill bit shy smaller than the drain plug and drill it out. Once again he lubed the drill bit with motor oil to avoid excessive heat and began drilling. He put down the oil catch pan under and once the drill bit came out of the hole all 4 quarts of oil began to drain. 5 minutes later all the oil was completely drained with all the rusty metal shavings from drilling out the oil drain plug and boy was the oil black. Then he had to start to remove the oil pan because he had to tap out new threads and didn't want to take the risk of tapping the hole with the oil pan mounted because if he did that he would get metal shavings in the motor and that's not good. He grabbed the 12mm socket and ratchet and begun to loosen all 10 bolts holding the oil pan in place. All the bolts came out with ease and then he took a wood block against the oil pan and hammered the wood block lightly to get the oil pan off the stuck gasket. The Oil pan came off the gasket and came out with ease. He brought the oil pan up to his workbench to clean it out. He started with just a few dry paper towels and begun to wipe the oil pan clean free of all old oil and metal shavings. After the dry paper towels he used a good half of can of brake cleaner and some more paper towels to clean out the rest of it. Once it was completely clean he already had a clean hole from the drill so he grabbed his tap and dye set. A tap and dye set are tools used to put screw threads on metal things whether they be external threads on a stud or internal threads like inside the oil pan. In this case he needed a tap because he was making internal threads. He took the right size tap and started tapping out the hole. It took him a little bit and a lot of metal shavings but he eventually had perfect new threads in the oil pan. After he made the new threads he took some more brake cleaner and paper towels to clean all those nasty little metal shavings out. He then realized he need a new drain plug and gasket so he called it a day.

The next day when he came back in the garage he got the heat going, left again then came back an hour later with a new oil pan gasket, drain plug, and valve cover gasket. He took the oil pan and the new gasket and returned back under the car. He lubed up the new gasket put it on the oil pan then seated the oil pan into place. After it was seated he grabbed the 10 bolts and tightened them up, then torqued them to the right torque specs. He also installed the new drain plug and washer into the new threads he had made. Now he could begin on the valve cover gasket.

Jacob grabbed the jack, jacked the car up a little more then pulled out the jack stands. Now he could lower the car back because he only needed to access the valve cover which is the very top of the engine protecting the camshaft assembly, valve train, and valves. There were 8 bolts and a few breather hoses on top of the valve cover he had to remove and disconnect. Once he disconnected them the valve cover popped right off. Once he had it off he wanted to clean out all the carbon and old oil deposits on the inside top of it. He used the same brake cleaner and rag trick to clean it out. After it was clean he grabbed the new gasket to prepare it. When you prepare a gasket you must scrape off all remaining gasket deposits on the valve cover and cylinder head. You also must put down a small bead of gasket sealant on the cylinder head and valve cover. After the preparations were done he grabbed a torque wrench and began torquing down the valve cover back onto the right torque specs. He now had to wait 5 hours for the gasket sealer to cure so he left then came back 5 hours later. When he came back the sealant was cured so now he could now swap the oil filter out and fill the car with oil. After the new filter was in he poured 4 quarts of oil in the motor then started it up. It ran good and he could now daily his car again with no oil leakage.