I've got the same round plate on my '71 engine. I like it, since it forces
one to at least expose the filter/screen...and while it's exposed, you
can't pass on examining it...you know for little metal shavings and such.
I'll admit that changing oil's always a little messier, but whatever
spills on me, I rub between my fingers feeling for signs of grit. 

8) Joe

On Mon, 1 Jan 1996, Dieter Dworkin Muller wrote:

> 
> All this discussion of drain plugs reminded me of an oddness I
> encountered on the Wombat ('58 microbus, roughly a '71 engine).
> There's the usual round plate underneath the engine where you'd expect
> to find a drain plug, but it's a smooth plate -- no hole for a drain
> plug.  The plate itself is held on by the usual handful of studs, and
> looks to have been made this way.  Almost like somebody didn't get
> around to drilling and tapping a hole for the plug.
> 
> The questions become:
> 
> - does this seem weird to anyone else?
> - why would you want to have such a plate?
> - would there be any harm in replacing it with a normal one (this is
>   probably covered by the answer to the previous question)?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> 	Dworkin
> 

----------------------------------------------------------
Joseph F. Fournier II <jfourni@comp.uark.edu> 501.575.7353
<a href="http://comp.uark.edu/~jfourni/"> Joe Fournier</a>
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| "If a thing worth having is worth working for, my bus  |
|  must be worth it's weight in gold."  -- me    \/      |
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