[JimD]

I learned something (i.e. my pan is steel) during this thread.

jmciver, does your oil come straight down or at an angle when you pull the oil drain plug? I am pretty sure my ex's pan is aluminum and when I changed her oil, the oil came out basically horizontally. I had to make a deflector (our of carboard) to avoid a mess. But the oil from my steel pan comes straight down.

I am wonder if the way the oil comes out of the pan may be a good indicator of the pan material. I think I have a slight preference for an aluminum pan on an aluminum block but if the steel one has the oil coming out "right", that would shift me the other direction.