My car had been leaking oil, and when I had it checked the guy drained the remaining oil, and then found that that the threading in the hole in the oil pan, where the oil drains out, had been partially stripped. The bolt was loose due to this, which is what had been causing the oil to leak.
He couldn't find a long enough bolt that would reach the remaining threading, but instead found a spark plug that was the same size and had the same threading, and put it into the oil pan hole.
This was necessary so that the oil could be replaced, but it seems dangerous to be driving around with the spark plug gap exposed to the oil in the oil pan, so I intend to get a longer bolt that will catch the remaining threading ASAP.
Your thoughts about how dangerous the situation is?
Go to a good parts store and buy a longer bolt to fit the drain. No real danger as far as the plug UNLESS the insulator gets hit and breaks off the ceramic and causes it to leak all the oil out.
Now if you had connected the plug to the ignition......
Just fix the damn thing. Drill and thread it for a larger bolt, or put a helicoil in it. It's an easy job, and the guy should have done it properly in the first place.
The gap is not harmful... it's submerged in oil anyway. The problem is that the ceramic insulator will break and all your oil will run out on the highway.
Which quick oil change place goobered the threads up anyway?
Auto parts stores have replacement drain plugs. FYI: They also have drain plugs that are "over sized", "double" and "triple" over sized. They are usually marked with an O for over sized. OO for double over sized. OOO for triple over sized. On the end, they are the shape of a thread tap. No drilling, tapping, or helicoil as some one suggested. They also have a rubber plug with an installation/removal tool. As a last resort and depending on the car, some oil pans aren't to bad to R&R.
If the ceramic on the plug gets dinged by a tossed rock from one of your tires, it can easily shatter letting all the oil out, killing your engine before you notice usually...
I used to work in garages and they 'all' carried the self threading oversized oil plugs just for oil pans like yours, there is no way the boss would have let a jury rig like a spark plug in the hole go out the door, if we were out of stock a fast delivery would be arranged for the proper part.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail > Hi,
To echo earlier statements, oversize self tapping drain plugs are available at NAPA. Have a reputable shop install it, as a good tech will be able to do it without leaving metal chips in the oil. Good luck, Ben
I bet that oil pan looked funny with that spark plug sticking out from the bottom.Humph! I never would have done that, let alone even thought of it. cuhulin
You have obviously never tried to get the ceramic out of the part that is encased in metal it is not as easy as you might imagine. He could break off the part of the ceramic that sticks out and the rest would probably last forever. They are designed to hold a lot more pressure than a little bit of oil pressing against it.
-jim
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You have obviously not had many engines towed to you for a head removal because the owner snapped the ceramic while installing his own plugs, allowing the center to fall into the piston area.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 'New' frame in the works for '08. Some Canadian Bush Trip and Build Photos:
You just make that one up? I've broken all kinds of spark plugs over the years and not one bit fell through into a combustion chamber. And I'm a professional - it happens.
I'd be more concerned with the outward ceramic breaking off and shattering the inside part and then having a leak through cracked ceraminc.
All this assumes the original poster isn't messing with all of you with something as dumb as this.
Not at all, I guess folks I know are better klutzes than you. I am only talking 4 or 5 since the 60's, but still....
There was a thread in this group (rec.autos.tech) in the last year or two about one snapping and the core falling into a V8. He could use an easy out easy on it, but had to pull it apart to get the ceramic core.
You have a point about the troll, but man I have seen and done some wicked jury rigs sometimes to get home....
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 'New' frame in the works for '08. Some Canadian Bush Trip and Build Photos:
I think my "finest" was the night I was out on my paper route (300-ish papers, delivered over roughly the same number of road-miles, even though I never got more than a hundred miles from home in a straight line)
The PCV hose that normally attaches to the top of the valve cover came adrift partway through the run one night. Not sure of how or why, only that it did.
(Here's where I reconstruct as best I can guess) This resulted in a light spritz of oil out the open hole - where it impacted the bottom of the air cleaner, collected enough to drizzle down the horn of the air cleaner, and finally drip onto the exhaust manifold
- directly under the comb that held the plug wires.
Predictably, an under-hood fire resulted. And was discovered when said fire ignited the spark plug wires, causing the engine to cease running.
At that point, I was stranded probably 6 miles from the nearest habitation, in the middle of the night, in "no service" land, with all four plug wires burned through. Things look rough for our "hero", don't they? Right about now is when the voiceover saying "Tune in next week for another chapter of our exciting tale, same bat-time, same bat-channel" should kick in, I'm thinkin'! :)
Ahhh, but Don carries (among other things) a wad of honest-to-god-came-off-a-hay-bale baling wire in the trunk (intended to wire up exhaust system if one of the many car-swallowing potholes on the route gets a lucky bite), and several chunks of baling twine, and a roll of duct tape reside in the floorboards of the back seat. And he has more than a passing familiarity with elecricity...
After some cutting and cobbling, I managed to finish the route and get downtown to the parts store - With baling wire chunks as conductors, supported away from the various under-hood metalwork by roadside twigs lashed together with baling twine and duct tape. I don't ever want to have to do it again, but at least I know it's possible! :)
If you are removing or installing a spark plug with a socket and if the socket is leaning at too much of an angle in relation to the spark plug, it is easy to break the porcelain insulator.It has happened to me once before. cuhulin
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