Stripped oil pan

[HoustonRunner]

I don't have quite enough energy to come up with a pithy title, but feeling pretty good overall since testing positive on Friday morning. Friday was rough, but yesterday was good other than a sore throat.

Since I was bored out of my skull sitting in my guest bedroom, I figured working on cars outside was isolating enough. Both '80's cars need oil changes, so I got my dad to make a quick OReilly run and I started on the squarebody.

The first thing that gave me a small pause was the drain plug was harder to back off than it should be. Once I got it loose it should come off easy, but I still needed the socket.

Of course that meant that when I tried to put the plug back in, I could easily tell the threads on the pan were stripped. Ugh.

(The culprit drain plug.)

What a week. Cracked a tooth on Tuesday night, got covid on Friday, then stripped the oil pan.

The plug was 1/2 20 threaded, so I ordered a M14x1.5 tap and new plug from OReilly, hopefully it will be in soon. I'll get my dad to pick it up then hope that the M14 is big enough, but not too big.

Honestly though, a new oil pan is only $40, but I'd rather not do that on my own.

To top it all off after that my daughter wanted me to move the squarebody so she could practice volleyball in the shade, but I can't.

[Mark Tucker]

@HoustonRunner Ugh. That's an oversize self-tapping plug. Saw a lot of those when I worked at a garage. That's the "quick fix" after some knucklehead at Jiffy Lube strips it out. They have drawers full of those things. You probably could reuse it with a bead of RTV, but your fix is bettter.

[Darkbrador]

@HoustonRunner while you’re at it, you could replace the drain bolt by a “quick drain” plug.

Get better !

[Manwich]

@Mark-Tucker

+1

Was about to say the same thing. The last place that did the oil change are the ones who should be paying to have it tapped and a new plug.

Stupid shit like this is also why I do my own oil changes and tire rotations.

[HoustonRunner]

@Manwich @Mark-Tucker Yeah, well the last place was me....I changed the oil as soon as I bought it last year and clearly didn't pay attention to the plug. I definitely did not notice it was a self tapper.

Must have put it on a bit too snug.

Also, I know OReilly isn't Amazon, but I put the order in last night and it said 12:30 today. Sitting here at 2:30 and annoyed I can't get back to work.

And I can't just go there myself, covid and all.

[Ad absurdum per aspera]

@Manwich said in Stripped oil pan:

Stupid shit like this is also why I do my own oil changes and tire rotations.

Reminds me of the Forrrrd Jaaaag X-type that used to be in the extended family. When it passed into my hands, badly in need of an oil change, I did a reverse-plank chin-up on a foot and a half of breaker bar (and I'm no lightweight) to no effect, then had an equally fruitless exercise with an impact wrench.

I gave up and took it to a real mechanic, who put it on a lift, tried every trick in the book, and concluded that enough effort to budge the drain plug was just going to distort the pan and cause leaks. Fortunately, and to my surprise given the car, a new oil pan proved inexpensive, easy to source locally, and straightforward to install...

I'm betting it came to be that way because a previous owner got a coupon for an oil change, and some drip-pan operator got the plug cross-threaded and rammed it home by turning the knob all the way to 11 on an impact wrench.

[Manwich]

@HoustonRunner said in Stripped oil pan:

Yeah, well the last place was me

LOL... well we all make mistakes.

And it's okay if one of us makes a mistake like this since most of us (aside from guys like @AMGtech ) are not car repair 'professionals'.

[HoustonRunner]

@Manwich Just to be clear, I didn't originally put in the self tapping drain plug, I just didn't notice it was there. So yes, I did over-tighten it, but it was already borked.

[AMGtech]

@Manwich I make mistakes too! If you don't, you're not human. What defines us is how we handle those mistakes

[Manwich]

@AMGtech said in Stripped oil pan:

I make mistakes too!

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

YOU HAVE SHATTERED MY IMAGE OF YOU!!!

[ranwhenparked]

@Darkbrador My solution was to switch to an extractor and stop messing with the plug entirely, but I am intrigued by those valves. Curious how well they seal when installed

[WildlyMild]

@ranwhenparked they hold very well! I had a fumatumo on a Honda Accord for 150k miles when the pan started to strip.

[ranwhenparked]

@WildlyMild they just screw right in with plumbers tape on the tread, right?

[WildlyMild]

@ranwhenparked it came with a fiber gasket. I didn’t use any tape or putty.