Alright, I went ahead and did my oil and filter change after work. All of it went well except that I did forget to check the dipstick before starting... it was cold (its zero degrees outside here guys, zero) I was just getting home from work and I just drove right up onto my ramps, jammed a clean pan under there and spun out the plug and filter. Based on what I took out I was probably down a half a quart, but we'll get to that.
I did catch the first half-quart in a glass jar to look at. It was dark, real dark. Only 2536 miles on this oil but it might as well have been 5000, just as dark as any other time that I change oil.
I have only 2.75 measurable quarts to point at that came out of the car... if you account for what didn't readily drain out of the bottom of my large catch pan and give some allowance for what is still trapped in the old oil filter then we can maybe say I took out 3 quarts even, just barely.
3.5 quarts went back in to get just up over the top of the high side of the hash marks. I put 3 quarts in to start with, ran it for a minute to get oil into the new filter, then shut it off and re-checked and ended up adding just about another half a quart. Must have been a little low before I started the whole process but like I said I neglected to check before starting. Not really super unusual that some oil would get used up the first couple thousand miles, rings trying to seat and all and mine has spent probably too much time idling since I installed my remote start, which doesn't help the rings seat any but sure makes me more comfortable when I get in in the morning. (I'll have to remember to flog it tomorrow, to make up for the idling :grin)
There was a small amount of aluminum bits in the bottom of my drain pan after I poured the oil into the measuring containers. Not a ton but a few bits, what I would consider the usual for a new motor. Determined it was aluminum because my magnet would not pick up the chips.
Sadly this oil won't be in here super long, put in full synthetic of course thats all I use but I will be bringing the car to the dealership in another 2500 miles so I can get my service stamp in my maintenance booklet. They want to see the car every 5000 miles for oil changes, and I want my service book to have a stamp for each and every one of those intervals with no gaps or misses in case of warranty concerns down the road, but I don't want to go 5000 miles on oil changes, at least not the first few, so I'm going to split the difference and do my oil changes in the middle. So every 2500 miles I or the dealership will be taking turns draining out oil thats still probably good but better to have too many oil changes than too few. Oil is not that expensive and on this car its so easy to change there is no reason not to. With the extra idling I've been doing with the remote start I don't feel bad at all about changing the oil at 2500 miles, new motor or not.
I love that I don't have to first remove an aero pan to access the plug and the filter like on my old Honda. I say that, and yet I wonder if another MPG could be squeezed out of this car if there was an aero pan under the front end... meh. Not sure if I care that much.
Anyways thats my story, 3 quarts out and just about 3.5 back in put me a bit over the full mark. I'll check it after the drive to work and back tomorrow and let you know if it changes.