OK, I'll admit, most of my 60V6 oil change experience comes from a 3100 and 3.1 in W-Bodies. The concepts will remain the same, but the details may differ.

OK, let's start with a list of tools you'll need:


A socket and ratchet (preferred, though an old school boxed-end wrench will work well assuming you have room). I believe the 3.1 and 3100 plugs are either 13 or 15mm and it would be good practice to use a 6 point socket to prevent rounding off the head of the bolt in case some gorilla from Jiffy Lube did it last time. A torque wrench would also be ideal when reinstalling, but not required. It doesn't take a whole lot of torque to create a good seal, but too much will cause headaches as easily as too little will. For reference, a 95 3100 is spec'd for 18 lb-ft of torque and a 90 3.1 is spec'd for 71 lb-in(roughly 6 lb-ft).

You'll also need a drain pan and depending on the size of your arms, an oil filter wrench (I install/remove them using a paper towel (heat and oil absorption) with one hand since it gives me more space and control (so that I don't crack the oil pressure sending unit in half or the knock sensor on a 3x00 (that was a bad day)).

Depending on where you are doing this, you may need a jack and jack stands. I park with the front wheels just slightly over the apex of a hill and get more than enough room to fit myself and all tools under without too many issues.

OK, so let's get on with the procedure. Oil flows better when warm, so run the motor for a minute or two before doing anything. If it's been run within the past hour or so, it should still be warm enough.

I like to start by popping open the new oil filter's box and pouring in as much oil as possible in the center of the filter (to minimize the amount of time the oil pump is pushing just air) without spilling any during the install. With a W-body, the filter gets tipped roughly 45* and is installed that way, so I try to keep the oil level on the inside a little more than half filled (it will soak up quite a bit so inspect again before actually installing). Now, stick the filter back in it's box and keep it out of reach of anything that would spill and/or ingest it.

Now we get under the warmed engine with our drain pan close by. Get your hand or filter wrench up to the oil filter (on the front or driver bank of cylinders, depending on if you're FWD or RWD) and give it a little twist counterclockwise. If it moves, good, move the drain pan so that the leading edge is roughly perpendicular to the position of the oil filter so that the furthest edge of the pan will still be able to catch what will likely be a rather strong stream of warm/hot oil (I usually see between 4-8" of distance that gets covered depending on viscosity and temperature).

Now it should only take ~15-20 seconds before there isn't any large amount of oil still flowing out of the filter location. If you feel like it, dump whatever oil is in the filter into the pan and either temporarily reinstall the filter lightly to completely stop the flow or just go ahead and move onto the drain plug. I have a little tray under the filter on the 3100 that does a good job or keeping oil off of the frame and only needs a few seconds of work with a paper towel to clean the tray. The 3.1 however does not have this. It may a year or engine or platform based upgrade, but it's more useful than it looks since without it, oil gets all over that part of the frame and takes forever to clean off.

OK, oil filter drain has quit spewing oil, so we move to the drain plug. Grab your socket/ratchet or wrench and position the drain pan similar to the way we did for the filter, with one edge overlapping the bolt location slightly and get ready for a lot more oil to pour out. Rotate the bolt counterclockwise and get it to the point of being able to turn with your fingers if possible. The bolt itself shouldn't be too hot, but if it is, just use your tools to get it off, but be warned the bolt will likely fall into the drain pan and you'll have to fish it out with something (some large pliers and a wire coat hanger work wonderfully without getting too messy).

OK, after a good minute or two, the motor should be fairly empty of it's oil and now you can pull yourself and the drain pan and tools out from under the vehicle. At this point you should do an initial inspection of what the oil looks like before any possible indicators of engine trouble settle to the bottom of the pan. If you see any kind of glitter of flakes, you should consider talking to someone who knows their way around a 60V6 to determine if it's something normal or something that would make you consider scouting for a new engine.

No trouble? Good, now grab your drain pan bolt and a paper towel and clean all of the used oil off and if your motor has a crush washer (the 3.1 does, but the 3100 doesn't), now would be a good time to inspect it. Any tears or chunks missing is reason enough to get another (they're cheap enough). If not, clean it off and put it back on the drain plug and get ready to put it back in again.

Time to go back under with a paper towel and clean the threads and mating surface on the oil pan to prevent any kind of leaks from happening and to get that last little bit of used oil out. Thread the bolt and torque to spec (or get it tight enough to where it fully contacts and give it another 10-45* of torque depending on your definition of contact (and presence of a crush washer)). It should be snug, but not to the point of actually straining anything.

Now it's time for your new filter to go on. If you still have the old one on, take it off on the way out after torquing the drain plug. you might spill a few drops of oil, but it won't be anything significant. Now go grab your new filter and inspect the oil level in it. if it looks like it's acceptable, get a little bit of clean oil on your finger and coat the entire gasket so that it's not dry anywhere. Now would be a good time to make sure the old oil filter's gasket came off with it and didn't stick to the motor.

Ready to install? Good, grab a paper towel and get under the vehicle. Wipe off all possible oil and grit from the mating surface that the gasket touches. You don't want this to cause an oil leak since it's under pressure at this point in the oil path. Once the surface is clean, get the new filter up in place (without spilling any new oil preferably) and get it threaded. If it starts to cross-thread, STOP. If you cross-thread this, you're going to be in for a much less pleasant procedure. Get the gasket to contact the surface (you should notice an obvious increase in resistance) and then either use a torque value (115 lb-in which is roughly 9.5 lb-ft for a 3100 and 11 lb-ft for a 3.1) or continue another 1/2 to 3/4 turn after contact. It's best to start at a smaller value and tighten it later than to go too tight to start with and potentially ruin the gasket.

That should be all the tough stuff... Now we pour in oil (4 quarts in a 3100 and 3.1) to get close to where we need to be. After pouring in the 4 quarts, we now have the dilemma of disabling the fuel injectors. I like to pull the ECM fuse and crank the motor for ~5 seconds with the injectors disabled to make sure there aren't any air pockets left anywhere before firing it up. You may experience some drive-ability issues though afterwards due to the ECM/PCM needing to adjust from factory defaults to settings that fit your vehicle better. I think it's worth it since I don't notice much if any change due to being able to tune to what the engine likes and not having to wait for the ECM to figure it out.

OK, now that the air pockets are gone, the ECM fuse can go back in and now start the engine and inspect for leaks while it's running. If you can't see any new oil being expelled, move the vehicle to a level surface and shut it off after it's been running for at least 60 seconds. Now you should go grab all of your tools and clean them off and store them where they belong and clean your hands of any used oil that got on them (it's a known carcinogen, which means it can cause cancer). Assuming this process takes a good 5 minutes or so, go back to the vehicle and pull out the dipstick and wipe it off, then check the oil level. Depending on what filter you use (I like the PF52 style, though the PF47 is specified for the 3100), you may need to add up to a quart of oil to get it up to the proper level. We do this after the engine has been run with a safe amount of oil to remove the possibility of any air in the oil passages showing a false reading.

Once you get up to the correct level, congratulations, you probably passed changing oil for dummies. Now go check your tire pressure, and power steering and brake fluid levels (transmission fluid as well if it's running and warm for an auto, and read the manual for a manual).