Yes, I did. I tried the Dorman self threading one with the smaller center drain bolt but that is "weak sauce". I see a lot of choices- Loctite thread repair, aluminum inserts, rubber plugs, etc, etc. Hoping to get opinions from experience on what works well and what doesn't. I don't mind spending $20-$30... to fix it right.

 

New oil pan

 

Notice I only offered money, not effort! Lol.

 

Next size larger plug.

 

Truly Tootie (yes , I went there , ha ha) Sofa ain't playing highbrow on you or seeing how much of your money AND effort he can spend just for fun , I've never seen any of the quickie fixes work well (no seepage) either .

 

Will a new oil pan stop the gear oil seeping from the tubes of every 10-bolt I've ever seen? Or from older rear main seals? Or tailshaft seals?

Isn't some seepage normal for a 30 year old car? Without some seepage, I'd have to suspect I woke up in the Matrix or something.

 

Lol. Well, FWIW, I ended up backing out the plug removed any washer, wrapped the cr*p out of it with yellow teflon tape, including the "washer" surface, and got it snug enough so that it wouldn't leak and probably wouldn't back out. So far, so good.

 

I did this with my Acura, even though a pan replacement is only about a 2 hour job if you work slow:

I got a (now discontinued) Fram Sure Drain, wrapped the valve that screws into the pan with a thick layer of Teflon tape and wrenched it in. I can drain the oil without having to deal with the stripped threads. I still see them sold on ebay. Dorman makes a similar product (EZ Drain) as does Fumoto.

YMMV

 

This seems like a decent idea, although I would probably still worry about it coming out (very unlikely). Aside from pulling the whole pan and replacing it or welding in a new bung, the best option might be a Helicoil. I use them regularly for similar things with great success. Takes 10 minutes or less without removing the oil pan and the repair will be as solid as a new oil pan. Just make sure you flush the pan with a bunch of oil to drain any metal particles that will end up inside from the drilling/re-tapping prep for the coil. I recommend buying a magnetic oil drain plug too (I put them in all my cars). I think they are only about $5 on Ebay, which is cheap peace of mind for catching any magnetic particles floating around your oil pan.

 

direct proportion between the size of the plug and the likelihood you'll catch it on the next bump

 

Do ls swap with knocking LS truck motor. find big speed bump, hit at speed. speed bump rips truck oil pan off car.

Insurance buys new engine.

 

After a bad experience or 2 back in my earlier days in this hobby, that's one of the things I always check before dropping in a motor, if at all possible. It's part of also checking any bolt holes that don't have bolts in them at that time. Few things are more irritating than to drop a motor in and discover that the 2 pass side rear exh man bolt holes have broken off nubs in them, or that the crank damper bolt hole threads are stripped.

Lesson learned?

 

I think I am going to chicken out and go with the Helicoil or EZ-Lok

 

Heli-Coil would probably work, if you can find the right size. (don't know it off the top of my head) No guarantees, but "probably". Just have to be careful about the metal shavings... glob up the drill bit and the tap with grease, flush it with brake cleaner.

 

x2 on that. Good idea to keep metal shavings down.

 

I went Heli Coil and a rare earth magnet drain plug. I like the easy-drain systems but the thought of road debris taking it out sent me back to a good old drain plug.

 

In my younger days and even older....heli coils became my best friend..especially with aluminum heads and header bolts. Now I use tq wrenches or choke up high on my 3/8" ratchet so I don't strip bolt holes.

 

Yeah, in my defense (or maybe this makes it worse on me ;-)), the drain plug was apparently already stripped and when I had that engine machined, I didn't check it until the engine was installed. Ugh.

 

A FSM for mid-60s Chrysler products that we had new during that time, had a section on the 727 & 904 transmissions. The first instruction in the "rebuild prep" section, after inspection, was "install Heli-Coils in all bolt holes in the case".

I'm skeptical of using them in an oil pan for the long term however, not because of any functional reason, but because the threaded insert welded into the pan, is SO THIN to begin with, that there's not much left after drilling out further to accommodate the Heli-Coil. A thread insert can't be expected to be reliable in a piece of foil. Butt hay, if it works, it works; butt I'd be REAL DILIGENT about keeping an eye on it. To me that seems like a time bomb.

 

That makes good sense. If I can, I might degrease the pan threads and use a high strength thread locker on the outside of the Heli-Coil.

 

The most likely problem will be, if you overtighten the plug the thing it screws into will expand outward from the hole because there's so little metal left, and the insert will then be loose. No thread-locker in the world will stop that. But if you're careful and reasonable it'll probably survive for awhile, maybe permanently but who knows.

 

Size does matter! Here is my drain plug: