Ed, You have gotten excellent advice from Jim and Dennis about that drain plug and thread repair. The one thing I would add is that you should absolutely use the correct torque value on the plug when tightening it. Per Bentley - back cover - it is 18 Ft Lbs. No less. No more. The incorrect torquing of that plug is most often - though not always - the source of the problems with it in the first place. People ignore it, forget it, find it inconvenient at the moment, don't have the torque wrench handy, whatever - many reasons - and simply reef on it with a wrench. That approach eventually leads to oil plug boss thread failure. By plug boss I mean the area in the engine case that is threaded to receive the plug. It being aluminum, over-torque that sucker even once, and I guarantee sooner or later there will be thread failure, then the whole host of plug aggravations will come to visit you. Once you get the case repaired with the proper thread kit, from then on, use the correct torque on that sucker!! 18 Ft Lbs. Best of Luck! Regards, John Rodgers 88 GL Driver Ed Wiebe wrote: > I come to the list with a problem and hopefully a solution. > The last few times I have changed the oil, when I remove the oil drain plug I get the plug left in a Helicoil. In other words the helicoil or time sert unscrews with the drain plug. I managed to get a plastic type washer over the helicoil thing and have put that back in. The drain plug is so tight in the helicoil that I can't separate the two. > The helicoil with the drain plug and washer can be screwed back in, but there are always a few drops of oil on my driveway after a drive. > I'm sure it is just a matter of time before the helicoil will strip the thread in the block and that's not a good thing! > What is the best way to proceed to get a permanent solution? > > Ed Wiebe > 1990 Westfalia > > > |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.