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Date:         Thu, 21 Jul 2005 09:35:05 EDT
Reply-To:     THX0001@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         George Goff <THX0001@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Heli-Coil an Engine Oil Drain? / From the Real World
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Per http://www.startribune.com/stories/131/4970789.html :

Replacement for a failed oil drain plug Paul Brand September 9, 2004 BRAND0909

Q I have a 1994 Ford Tempo with 120,000 miles. At about 90,000 miles, the repair shop overtightened the oil drain plug and cracked a chip out of the oil pan near the threads. They ground down the area by the threads, and life was fine. A month ago we had the car into a tire shop for tire repair and had them change the oil. The threads stripped out on the oil pan drain hole. They put a self-tapping plug in it, but they were nervous because there was not a lot of metal left for the threads to bite into. Well, yesterday my wife had the car, and the plug wiggled loose and lost two to three quarts of oil. The tire shop topped it off but couldn't give an exact estimate on an oil pan because too many components had to be removed to get the pan off. What do I do? The car looks in great shape. If I cleaned up the outer area of the oil pan threads, could I imbed a nut with J-B Weld and stick it to the hole? Can you weld a nut on an oil pan?

A I assume the "self-tapping" plug the shop tried was an oversized self-tapping plug. If it wasn't oversized, this might work.

There are a couple of inexpensive rubber oil drain plugs you could try. The most common is an expansion-type rubber insert that costs only about six bucks. You simply insert the correct plug in the opening, then tighten the nut to expand the plug firmly into the opening.

Like you, I'm a bit nervous when the engine's life blood -- the oil -- is held in by a simple expansion plug. But I know these work.

The other style of rubber plug uses an expanding spring clip that you insert into the drain plug opening. Somewhat like an expansion bolt for drywall, this spring clip permanently springs open behind the plug. You then screw the new rubber plug into the threaded boss of the spring clip to seal the opening. This style of plug costs about $11.

As fond of J-B Weld as I am -- I've used it for everything from structural repair to an outboard motor's lower unit housing to restoring a shattered one-of-a-kind glass tail-light lens -- I don't think I'd want to bet the life of an engine on this epoxy permanently holding a new nut onto the oil pan.

And as for welding, I don't know whether there are any shops willing to braise a new nut onto the outside of the pan while it's still attached to the engine, even if all the oil were drained out first. I suspect the remaining oil film inside the pan would be rather flammable. But it would certainly be possible and relatively inexpensive to repair the damaged oil pan once it is removed from the engine.

George


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