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Tech Question
Jason Beert, Rapid City, SD, 1986 Dodge B150 van 318
I just bought this van. I thought it'd be a good idea to change the oil. Come to find out (too late) that it doesn't have a typical drain plug. This drain plug unscrews by hand, and it seems to be permanently affixed to the oil pan. It opens up the drain, but you can't remove the plug. Here's my dilemma... I can't get the plug to screw back in. Any suggestions??
Jason-
It HAD a normal drain plug. What's happened is that some dork overtorqued the plug, breaking off the spotwelds that hold the 'nut' to the inside of the pan. Now it's just spinning free. This sucks.
The only 'by the book' fixes are:
(1) a new oil pan
(2) drop the pan, hold the nut, tighten the plug, then re-weld the nut to the pan.
No, oversize drain plugs won't help you. But, assuming you destroy the existing plug (sawzall, chain saw, jackhammer, etc.) and push the remnants that are too large to drop out of the hole back into the pan, you might be able to get one of those "bulbous rubber" expansion drain plugs to work. But many people would worry about the debris bouncing around in the pan for the next 1000,000 miles. Thay might have a point.
You could also neatly cut a much larger hole in the pan, weld a nut to a piece of scrap steel, then weld the new piece over your larger opening.
But on a B-van, the pan is easy to drop, so I see no reason to Mickey-mouse this.
Rick
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