How many people never check the oil in their car? Or their lawnmower?

Will it run? For how long? Will something break?

I grew up with my dad stressing the importance of checking the oil in my car. Or lawnmower. Or motorcycle. Or deep fat fryer. Apparently if you run an engine without enough oil, bad things can happen. Or so he told me.

And growing up through the 1980s, with Ronald Reagan’s “trust but verify” in the news at times, I figured I should test this advice for myself. Was he right? Will bad things happen? Or is it all a ploy by Big Oil to suck more money out of me?

Last fall, a neighbor gave me a mower that was in need of some work. It didn’t run very well, but I was able to tinker and get it going fairly well with some duct tape and bailing wire. I had to incorporate a home-brew electric starter to get it going and add some propane to keep it consistently running.

Anyway, I drained all the oil out of it and told my 10-year-old son, “Hey DJ, wanna blow up a lawnmower?”

For the curious - this was shot with a Canon SL1 camera and 50mm f1.8 prime lens.

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