Stripped Drain Plug

[JCainFJ]

Excellent, thanks--and great link--I saved it to my favorites.  I'd never heard of it.  Good stuff.  If I may, I'd like to quantify my self descriptor of "lazy"  (above post) as "pressed for time" .  Maine winters are long and cold.  I think I'll add 'safety wire on the sump plug' to my winter list.


Mark,

These folks have a good price on safety wire pliers, the $20 pliers are fine.

  http://www.skygeek.com/safety-wire-pliers.html

The cast boss on the oil pan  forward of the drain plug is a good place to wire the plug to.

[SlowOldGuy]

They (Timeserts) work extra bitchen for stripped spark plug threads in a aluminum head...(like a Miata's DAMHIK)

Uh, yes, I'm very familiar with Timeserts for spark plug threads.  My '85 has a set of them installed a few years ago, along with a nice set of shiny Stainless Steel (and UN-pitted) intake and exhaust valves.

DavidR.

[ukfj]

 I replaced mine with a just oversize tapered plug, which cuts a new thread as you carefully screw in.
I got it from  C.G Automotive, 300 matchedash street south. unit C,Orillia,Ontario,L3V 4X5.
The company is on the web,excellent service and cheap  as well. I seem to remember around $8 can.
incl. of shipping to the Uk. They have a catalogue order site so you can choose from a whole range of
sizes and types. Regards from Rich. 
ps. a lot less hassle than muckin about with inserts.   

[jvb_ca]

Here's the link to their site.
http://www.cgenterprises.com/drain_plugs.htm

They are about 20mins north of me.

Cheers...Jake

[markmartin]

Mark,

These folks have a good price on safety wire pliers, the $20 pliers are fine.

  http://www.skygeek.com/safety-wire-pliers.html

The cast boss on the oil pan  forward of the drain plug is a good place to wire the plug to.

Great, got it, thanks!

[Scooterbob]

It is done. 
I drilled and tapped it for a 16mm oversize plug.  Worked great and feels strong.  One question.....What torque?  The book says 32 ft.lb. I think.  I put it at 25, but with the cheap felt/rubber washer that it came with.  It still has some small seepage around the plug for this reason.  Couldn't find any "crush washers", but I did find a copper one.  Any idea what I should torque it too with a copper one?
Other than that small detail, everything went flawless.  The most difficult part was finding a drill to hold the 14mm bit! As far as tapping, I ended up putting a 12 pt. socket on the end of the tap and then ran it in with the ratchet. 
Thanks all for the recommendations and great advice.

[Scooterbob]

I drilled and tapped it for a 16mm oversize plug. One question.....What torque?  The book says 32 ft.lb. I think.  I put it at 25, but with the cheap felt/rubber washer that it came with.  It still has some small seepage around the plug for this reason.

Problem solved.  Found a crush washer and put 30 ft.lb. of torque to it.  No more leaks! 

[JCainFJ]

  32ft.lb is the torque for a clean dry unlubricated steel plug in the clean dry unlubricated aluminum pan. If you torque it to that level and the plug/pan is lubricated (its the oil drain , so yes it will be lubricated) it will strip out again.  I torque all of my oil drain plugs to 12ft.lb. max! The plug will not come loose when torqued to this lower level. If you don't trust 12ft.lb then drill the plug and safety wire it.

[Scooterbob]

  32ft.lb is the torque for a clean dry unlubricated steel plug in the clean dry unlubricated aluminum pan. If you torque it to that level and the plug/pan is lubricated (its the oil drain , so yes it will be lubricated) it will strip out again.  I torque all of my oil drain plugs to 12ft.lb. max! The plug will not come loose when torqued to this lower level. If you don't trust 12ft.lb then drill the plug and safety wire it.

Mine was definitely clean and dry, since I just had finished draining, cleaning and inspecting the hole.  I will keep that mental note for the next oil change.  I'm definitely not taking it back off again until next time!   

[Bill_Rockoff]

I haven't had great luck with the small Helicoils in the aluminum Miata head where all my valve cover bolts seem to be halfway stripped.  I'm pretty sure my engine builder sent me a different ported head rather than porting mine, and whoever had this cylinder head before I did wasn't as careful as I've been -  I never had a problem with mine before the engine build  but it's a hassle now.  I'll try Time-serts for these before trying to fix the exhaust manifold stud that's stripping its mount.  (The header flange seals okay as-is, but if I install the turbo I'll have to fix the manifold stud or it'll leak at the exhaust gasket.)  Next step is to drill & tap the next size larger.

I didn't have good luck long-term trying to solve my drain plug issue on-bike.  I laid the bike over and tapped the oil pan for the next size up, but my new larger plug never sealed well.  I eventually bit the bullet and ordered a new pan from Zanotti (this was before RPM Randy came along.)  It wasn't super cheap (a couple dozen bucks one side or the other of $100, IIRC) and I'm sure it won't earn me the respect of our list-members from the southern hemisphere who take pride in their ability to smelt parts from raw ore in their kitchens.  But it did solve the problem admirably for me.  It took less time to r&r the pan than it took me to drill and tap the old one.  Now, I'm leak-free - all my oil leaves the engine through the exhaust pipes like it should.

[Scooterbob]

  I eventually bit the bullet and ordered a new pan from Zanotti (this was before RPM Randy came along.)  It wasn't super cheap (a couple dozen bucks one side or the other of $100, IIRC) and I'm sure it won't earn me the respect of our list-members from the southern hemisphere who take pride in their ability to smelt parts from raw ore in their kitchens.  But it did solve the problem admirably for me.  It took less time to r&r the pan than it took me to drill and tap the old one.  Now, I'm leak-free - all my oil leaves the engine through the exhaust pipes like it should.

A new pan will more than likely be in my future at some time.  Just out of curiosity, what were the general steps to replacing it?

[Pat Conlon]

Bob, Marsh replaced his pan (or was it Klavdy's?) just prior to a WCR.  As usual, Randy saved the day for Marsh.
IIRC Marsh did it with the engine still in the frame.

[racerman_27410]

Remove exhaust and drain engine oil

remove oil level sensor from bottom of oil pan.

unbolt and remove oil pan

clean mating area

install new pan with new gasket.

reinstall exhaust and oil level sensor

fill with oil

ride 

[Scooterbob]

I would have to assume you just slid it out the side then, and didn't unbolt the lower half of the frame?

[Marsh White]

Bob, Marsh replaced his pan (or was it Klavdy's?) just prior to a WCR.  As usual, Randy saved the day for Marsh.
IIRC Marsh did it with the engine still in the frame.

Yep, Randy saved the day again.  It was for Klavdy's FJ.

Here is Randy's contact info:
http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=69.0

The Oil pan can be changed easily with the FJ on the center stand.  Just unbolt the exhaust and the chin fairing...that's it!  Oh, make sure you get a new oil pan gasket too...Randy has those in stock as well (and reccomended it to me - cuz I didn't even think of that at the time).  Far easier to get a clean used oil pan from Randy then messing around with helicoils and the like.