I cant understand people putting old oil back in a 40,000 dollar minimum appreciating asset car.

Why not just do it at oil change time and avoid all this putting old oil back in your car malarkey.

well... I think the same way you are thinking. I was only about 300-500 miles on a complete oil change before having to do my valves... seems like a waste of extra time and money to change the oil on top of everything else needing to be done.

Also... if I DID change the oil at the same time of doing the valves, and the next day found a problem that required me to redo the valves, I'd hate to change the oil again in just one day!!! :eek: That's about a $100 cost.

Malarkey is in the eye of the beholder, as I consider needlessly throwing away perfectly good oil to be malarkey (same thing with silly, 3K mile oil changes). And if someone can't drain oil into a clean container and put it back in without adding dirt to it in the process, they have no business working on cars. :)

I've removed all valve covers without draining the oil, it's fine. no more than a few drips of oil lost. I had the same concern, asked a few friends and was advised that you don't have to worry about a large volume of oil sitting in the valve covers.

I jacked car on one side, and no oil came out.

Ditto.
Less than one quart.
Johan