It's not quite j body related..
But i figure it'd have the same recommendation.
My grandfathers Buick Lasabre has a stripped oil pan drain plug. Its being held together with some type of JBweldish stuff. Well now its starting to leak and im wondering what my best shot at budget repair would be. I know not to use plastic washers of any kind. Can i find an oversize drain plug for it? How do i go about measuring its size as a bolt to make sure i go one up? Will a helicoil do a better job?
I do not have a tap and die set as of yet, but will purchase one if i need to.
I have seen where drilling and tapping works. However, I've never done it simply because I am not a fan of metal shavings floating around in my oil. I could be wrong, but there are kits that address your concen. Check at places like AutoZone, Advance, PEPBOYS, NAPA, etc. and see if they maybe have something that will help. But like I said, I'm personally not a big fan of drilling and tapping into the oil pan without it being removed due to shavings floating around in the oil. And if you're going to remove the pan, you may as well look into replacing it with a new one from a dealership or a pre-loved one from the junk yard.
Some people have brain storms, others light drizzles. And then there are those that have droughts.
what also works is go to a hardware store and find a bolt with the same thread pitch and size that is about twice as long as the original drain plug and thread that in while using a crush washer, the threads in the pan are going to be longer then the drain plug itself . That should fix your problem
When i worked at valvoline we used to have these things called pan savers. basically a spring loaded t shape at the bottom that you put in the pan, with a threaded rod, and on the other side you had a wing nut looking thing over top of a large washer, with a wide rubber ring under the large washer. when you tighten it down it seals just like a regular drain pan bolt. it takes the stripped threads out of the equation completely. I only had to use one once, The car came in and the oil pan plug was way over tight, and as soon as i went to loosen it, it just stripped the threads right out. The pan saver worked perfectly, just like it was supposed to, and didn't leak. The guy continued to come back to us, and either out of having no money or just laziness, he never had the pan replaced, and the pan saver never leaked a drop on him.
advance sells drain plugs by application, and also, they sell oversized plugs by application. worst comes to worst, find out what size it is, (it's listed in the computer) and go up one size (ala m12 goes to m14, 9/16 goes to 5/8 etc etc etc.)
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