It was time for an oil change today on the Express. Only been a few thousand miles, but was over a year and I wasn't sure what was in it for oil. Thought it would be a simple quick change.

Pulled out the plug and found this.


Looks like the last guy was trying to make up for a bad rubber gasket and just gave it all the ugga duggas he had to make it stop leaking. I was not happy taking it out since it just didn't feel right...

Luckily the local NAPA had one on the shelf, and it seems like the threads in the pan are holding fine. I had to run the new plug in and out a bit, and luckily the magnet caught some of the shavings so should be good to go.

If the pan gasket ever starts to leak I'll swap the pan out I think, but felt good as of today.

So the rant is that good help is hard to find, and change your own oil to avoid the quick change idiots.

 

That sucks. Looks like it was crossed when they put it in and just forced it the rest of the way. Or it was so over torqued that it crossed on the way out.

Luckily the female threads weren't stripped. The plug is probably softer metal than the threads on the pan.

The shop I worked in had a good collection of oil plugs kept from swapping pans or entire engines. I've simply tapped the stripped oil pan threads to the size of the closest plug I could find when the female threads were damaged.

 

I'm tempted to get a Fumoto valve and that way I only ever need to get it tight one last time.