Broke my oil plug off in the pan...

[Hari]

Some days you wonder why you even woke up in the morning. :( So I'm changing my oil today and go to torque down my oil plug. I completely forgot to change it to the M30 setting of 18ft-lbs! I had just changed my wife's oil earlier and had the torque wrench set to her setting of 28 ft-lbs. SNAP! :mad

So now it looks like I have to pull my oil pan... fun fun fun! While it's out should I buy a crank scraper? Maybe tap my pan for a turbo oil drain line? I need to make a positive out of this negative.

[MacR]

Some days you wonder why you even woke up in the morning. :( So I'm changing my oil today and go to torque down my oil plug. I completely forgot to change it to the M30 setting of 18ft-lbs! I had just changed my wife's oil earlier and had the torque wrench set to her setting of 28 ft-lbs. SNAP! :mad

So now it looks like I have to pull my oil pan... fun fun fun! While it's out should I buy a crank scraper? Maybe tap my pan for a turbo oil drain line? I need to make a positive out of this negative.

It actually stripped the pan? Wow, most oil drain bolts are made to strip before the pan.

[5mall5nail5]

No it sounds like he broke the head off of the plug. Dude just extract the threading and get a new bolt. I never "torque it" - I just tighten until its tight.

[screwbiedoo15]

While it's out should I buy a crank scraper?


I was wondering, what's a crank scraper? I keep seeing them on ebay and was curious to what they actually do

[Hari]

No it sounds like he broke the head off of the plug. Dude just extract the threading and get a new bolt. I never "torque it" - I just tighten until its tight.

The head came off, but the rest fell in the pan. It's gotta come off. :(

[slocar]

how does the whole oil level sensor thing on the bottom of the pan attach? is it just sitting inside the pan or what? maybe you can get the remains of the bolt through there?

note: i dont actually know if you can access it through there, just throwing that out.

[5mall5nail5]

The head came off, but the rest fell in the pan. It's gotta come off. :(

You could get that puppy out without dropping the pan I bet - it'd be tricky. I have a friends "borescope" that I could look around in there :(


how does the whole oil level sensor thing on the bottom of the pan attach? is it just sitting inside the pan or what? maybe you can get the remains of the bolt through there?

note: i dont actually know if you can access it through there, just throwing that out.


You could drop that sensor out its 3 nuts and a ~1.5" hole. You could get a mirror and see up in there I am sure.

[5mall5nail5]

I was wondering, what's a crank scraper? I keep seeing them on ebay and was curious to what they actually do

They are to minimize the whirling of the air and oil by the crank counter weights. They work, I guess, but are tricky because you can have clearance issues if you don't check by turning the crank a few times.

[screwbiedoo15]

They are to minimize the whirling of the air and oil by the crank counter weights. They work, I guess, but are tricky because you can have clearance issues if you don't check by turning the crank a few times.


Oh ok, thanks. I keep seeing this one for sale on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Crank-scraper-BMW-M10-NEW-Dual-M20-M30-M50-M52_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ46098QQihZ025QQitem Z380025785113QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

There is a testimonial in there saying that the engine revs more freely like as if it had a lightweight flywheel so I was wondering if that's true/ how it works.

[5mall5nail5]

yeah it lessens the windage in the oil pan - they're not a bad thing at all - you just have to be careful with crank to scraper clearance or you can hit (bad) or you can actually get some weird harmonic frequency emitted from it as the crank whips past and vibrates it.

[Binjammin]

No it sounds like he broke the head off of the plug. Dude just extract the threading and get a new bolt. I never "torque it" - I just tighten until its tight.

Got a welder? I've had a lot of luck with situations like that. Weld the inside of a washer to the bolt that's broken off, then weld a nut to the washer. Gently take the broken bolt out.

[splackavellie]

Some days you wonder why you even woke up in the morning. :( So I'm changing my oil today and go to torque down my oil plug. I completely forgot to change it to the M30 setting of 18ft-lbs! I had just changed my wife's oil earlier and had the torque wrench set to her setting of 28 ft-lbs. SNAP! :mad

So now it looks like I have to pull my oil pan... fun fun fun! While it's out should I buy a crank scraper? Maybe tap my pan for a turbo oil drain line? I need to make a positive out of this negative.

we're in the same boat. mine is stripped...at least im pretty sure it is so the pan has gotta come off. you gonna be doing this yourself?

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

I was wondering, what's a crank scraper? I keep seeing them on ebay and was curious to what they actually do


Keep the oil in the pan and not flying around and foaming from the crank beating it.

Not worth the trouble, unless you are doing some hard road racing.

[upallnight]

Some days you wonder why you even woke up in the morning. :( So I'm changing my oil today and go to torque down my oil plug. I completely forgot to change it to the M30 setting of 18ft-lbs! I had just changed my wife's oil earlier and had the torque wrench set to her setting of 28 ft-lbs. SNAP! :mad

So now it looks like I have to pull my oil pan... fun fun fun! While it's out should I buy a crank scraper? Maybe tap my pan for a turbo oil drain line? I need to make a positive out of this negative.

WOW someone that actually use a torque wrench to tighten bolts, I'm anal with my cars, but NOT that ANAL.

Don't blame the wife for your own stupidity.

If it not leaking oil, and you just change the oil, wait until you need to change the oil again to remove the broken bolt. (That the positive from this situation)

You will need to get a suction pump later to suck out all the oil before dropping the pan.

[Goathumper]

no pump needed. As stated earlier, he can remove the level sensor.

[Hari]

WOOT! :) I got the bolt out without removing the pan! I thought it had fell in when in fact it was hollow and still in the thread. Got a screwdriver in there and after some hard twisting worked it all the way out clean. Went to the store, bought a new bolt and I'm good to go! Thanks for the advice everyone and the for the moral support upallnight... :shifty There is nothing wrong with torquing things down to spec, but everyone make mistakes.

[Binjammin]

WOOT! :) I got the bolt out without removing the pan! I thought it had fell in when in fact it was hollow and still in the thread. Got a screwdriver in there and after some hard twisting worked it all the way out clean. Went to the store, bought a new bolt and I'm good to go! Thanks for the advice everyone and the for the moral support upallnight... :shifty There is nothing wrong with torquing things down to spec, but everyone make mistakes.

I was going to say "You should have known when all the oil failed to come pouring out, but I realized you were putting it back in. Glad to see you didn't drop the pan for no reason :D

[Stir Fry A Lot]

torque wrenches ftw. it's just a peice of mind knowing that everything is uniform. it takes what, .03 seconds to set the load?