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So I noticed some oil leaking into the bilge the other day. I found root cause of the oil drain plug. For anyone that didn't see my other thread, I put a regular drain plug in after breaking the elbow and hose drain set up. The oil drain plug I got has a plastic washer / gasket. Last night I thought I'd snug it up and when I did it turned quite a bit.
I'm wondering...
Should I have put teflon tape or other thread sealant on?
Should I be using a different sort of washer / gasket?
Thoughts?
Sounds to me like it wasn't tight enough to begin with. I've never heard of anyone using anything but sheer torque to keep a drain plug in.
Just don't crank it too tight, would be a pain to strip the threads. Check to be sure the oil pan surface is clean around the bolt hole and that it is flat, not bent or dinged.
If just re-tightening doesn't work, I'd try a copper washer like used on fuel fittings. Stiff enough to take some torque yet soft enough to seal against the harder steel.
Thanks guys.
I was careful not to overtighten. I'll watch it to see what it does and if it starts leaking again, I'll look into the copper washer. I'm hoping I don't need to do anything more than tighten it. Don't want to have to change the oil again.
How do you drain your oil? Do you not have a hose coming from your oil pan?
No, I broke the fitting in the fall and couldn't find a way to replace it without lifting the motor. I just put a regular drain plug in and I'm getting a Pela pump next time I do an oil change. I'll use the pump to suck the oil out of the dipstick.