More Red and, Thankfully, Not Dead: A Lesson Learned

One look in the engine bay of my car, a 2014 Subaru BRZ, will tell you that I like red. So, I was thrilled when my wife, with a little coaxing, bought me a set of red anodized aluminum pullies for my car from a vendor at the last drifting event we went to. Since it was coming up on time to change my oil, I set today aside to accomplish both jobs. The oil and filter change seemed to go smoothly, without even a drop lost. But, I would later learn that I had made a terrible mistake, one that might have ruined my engine.

The oil filter on my car is conveniently located on top. I removed the old K&N filter and replaced it with a new OEM filter. The filter in this picture is neither of those, and that's where the message in this lesson lies.

Here's the red pullies I installed. The closer pulley is on the crankcase, and weighs four pounds less than the original, which will boost my horsepower a bit.

This final image shows you where the pullies sit:

So, what went wrong? Everything looks great. Well, I got in the car with my son to test it out and after a few minutes of driving we noticed a noise, one that attracted the attention of a driver next to us at a light. Waiting on the red, the car began to smoke. That red light seemed to last forever. As soon as it turned, I moved quickly to the right and got off the road. There was quite a bit of smoke coming from under the hood, which I opened to find my engine bathed in oil. What the heck could I have missed? How could this happen? The answer? I took the old oil filter off and neglected to ensure the gasket came off with it. I tightened the new filter to what I thought was tight enough but, with two gaskets in place, the filter couldn't be tightened down enough and most of my oil spouted out around the filter like a geyser. Luckily the engine didn't seize and I was able to get a ride from my wife to a shop to get the K&N filter you saw pictured above, and six quarts of Mobil 1. I have never put anything but Eneos oil in my car, and I had no way of knowing how much I needed to put in, so I may buy another six quarts of Eneos and an OEM filter, and do it all over again soon. This time, you can bet I'll check for that old gasket!