On Sun, 08 May 2011 18:18:13 -0700, Winston
wrote:

Ed Huntress wrote:
wrote in message
...

(...)

A good friend of mine spent time helping to build the
Trans Alaska Pipeline. He did oil changes on the heavy
equipment.

While it was running.

--Winston

That's tricky, I'll bet. I wonder how you'd know if the oil you were
draining wasn't the same oil you were putting in.

I suspect that a portion of it *was*.
I also suspect that Alyeska had access to lots of cheap motor oil.
He never mentioned details, though it would not surprise me to
learn that there was a system of valves allowing the change to
be done *fairly* safely and efficiently.

--Winston


It is not that uncommon a feat. You use a pump to pump from the drum
into the engine and drain until the oil looks clean. If it has a very
big drain hole just stick the handle of a ratchet, or something, in
the hole to slow things down a bit.