From experience the expandable rubber plugs are not the best LONG term solution. They do work in the short term, but in my experience they also leak... and they leak worse each time you remove/replace it. It's never enough to notice the oil loss between changes, but it is enough to leave an oil stain wherever you park. In my case I am fortunate, I have a TiiCo, and the oil pan has three location I can drain it from. After driving 10k mi with the rubber plug while hoping to find a proper bolt that was longer than stock that good grab what was left of good threads to no avail, I managed to get the stock bolt back in and loctite'd it. Now I just use on of the two allen-headed plugs and never touch the normal drain plug. The "right" solution is to either replace the oil pan, or drop it and take it to a machine shop for repair. I personally would not try to repair it on the van.
----- Original Message ----- From: "George Goff" <THX0001@AOL.COM> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 2:13 PM Subject: Re: [VANAGON] Heli-Coil an Engine Oil Drain? / From the Real World
> In a message dated 7/21/05 4:52:28 PM, rogersisler2000@YAHOO.COM writes: > > << Plug the drain hole with jb weld stick. >> > > What is this fixation on JB Weld? If you want the lowest tech repair, get a > piece of well seasoned hardwood and bung the thing. I'll bet there are work > boats used every day on the Chesapeake that have had such repairs in place for > more than fifty years. I once made a temporary filler plug for a chainsaw oil > tank by sanding a hardwood dowel to a slight taper then gashing some threads > in it with a three corner file. Although I meant to get a new plug, that day > has never come. > > All kidding aside, I think the best road for Barry to follow is to use an > expansion repair plug made just for the purpose at hand. > > George |
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