In my early days of old car fiddling I once tried to put an insert in a stripped out spark plug hole. It didn’t go well, and I’ve not attempted any in-place thread repairs since.

 

Stuart

 

From: Jim Felder [mailto:jim.felder@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2016 5:14 PM
To: Stuart MacMillan
Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
Subject: Re: stuck oil plug

 

I have always been able to reach up in there with a finger and rag or an improvised wire thingy to clean out shavings and have never had a problem in 55 years of various stuck/stripped oil drains and other crankcase penetrations to no ill effect.

 

Jim

 

On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 6:23 PM Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@gmail.com> wrote:

True, but they could go into the pump, and that’s not good either.  Since there is a screen in the pickup it’s probably not an issue.  I’d probably do a Time Sert if this engine was a keeper.

 

Stuart

 

From: Jim Felder [mailto:jim.felder@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2016 4:05 PM
To: Stuart MacMillan
Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
Subject: Re: stuck oil plug

 

The shavings will be on the wrong side of the filter to worry about, no?

 

Jim

On Monday, October 24, 2016, Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, I'll stick with the pump rather than introduce metal shavings into the
case, and you can't tap that hole without doing that no matter how much
grease you pack into the tap.  Probably won't go through the pickup screen,
but being an aluminum alloy a magnetic plug won't collect them either.  A
Subaru engine is going in at some point anyway.

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
mike riley
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2016 6:00 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: stuck oil plug

pumping it out is crazy. pep boys has a thread repair kit for ~10 dollars
that has the tap and bit and stainless steel inserts to repair the threads.
OR drill a hole in the plug and tap with 1/4" pipe thread and use a brass
pipe plug that seals without a gasket and can be replaced for 50 cents.
Suction will not get the heavy particles out. Increasing the effort and
expense of the oil change does not increase the value of the operation.

mike