Ruh Roh George... NOW WHAT?!!
 

So I got out today to change the oil i nthe car, and what do I find? The oil drain bolt is completely round, and even with vice-grips, it STILL would NOT come loose.


I have another oil pan bolt to put in, but I need to get the old one out first!



I'm in a bit of a dilemma! HELP!

taking off the pan will drain the oil. Maybe a drill? Poke a hole in it and drain it possibly. Put the vice grips on REALLY tight and hopefully it will pop loose. It would be alot easier to just replace the plug if at all possible. I am sure you know this also.

get out your trusty hand grinder and grind a slot in the top of the offending drain plug. then get a long bladed screw driver and put it in there sideways and turn. ive had to do that a few times.

isaac

pnematic chisel will get it off too. And for gods sake, use a new drain plug and a new CRUSHWASHER!

Lots of Liquid Wrench, Elbow Grease, more time with the vice grips, and a lot of patience.

At least it's one bolt... try stripping the fitting on the end of a brake line you just spent two hours bending!

Jon

a hammer and small chisel will do it. be sure to grind the sharp edge as it will slice the drain plug.

There are some tools that are designed for use with rounded off heads. I have had some luck with some of them, but the best one I've used I got from Sears. I wish I knew the name of it for you, I'm pretty sure it would make short work of this issue.

A stick of butter
An Aligator snapper
Peanuts, and 3 LBS of Flour..

Everyone has a different idea and it's beginign to sound like a cookie recipe..lol

Get a pipe wrench, nothing can defeat the pipe wrench......

Vice grips and a cheater bar are my favorite rounded bolt solution.

the pipe wrench can NEVAR LOSE!

get a drimal and grind new edges into the bolt but it will be a different size though

did you get back the first gen? I though it was a gonner what happened with that?

I prefer to smack the hell outta he head of the bolt to help break it loose then a good set of vice grips with nice sharp teeth or beat a 6 point socket on it.

just keep your fingers the hell out of the way , whatever you do.

I used rusty's solution a couple of times, with good effect. I think that bolt is still in use on my car to this day, though I need to change wrenches when I get to it.

Listen to the man ! There are even baby pipe wrenches and the tiny ones with a small cheater bar will do it in seconds ( even if perfectly smooth and greasy ).

Life's too short for any other way.

All good advise above. I would drill a hole as close to the center of the plug as possible ( make sure that you have a proper size ez-out available for the drill size} allow the oil to drain,tap the ez-out in and remove the plug, that is how a mechanic would do it.

Why is this back from the dead?

I'd try the pipe wrench after a good honest try with a good set of vise grips didn't work. After all, the pipe wrench is designed to grab onto round metal things. To get some leverage, you might want to slip a 1-2 foot piece of scedule 40 PVC pipe over pipe wrench handle, easier on the hands and you will get all the force you need. I have a bunch of these of different lengths and diameters lying around and I use them all the time on all kinds of wrenches.

Let us know what worked!

I'm also wondering why this was resurrected....

But seriousily I doubt most mechanics would do that. Very foolish in my mind. You drained the oil, and then if you still can't get it out your really screwed because now your engine has no oil in it. Not only that just think about all of the metal shavings that could potentially get into the oil pan in the process. I would try hammering a 6 point socket on, if that doesn't work i'd use a better set of vice grips, should be able to get it off...

I had the same problem with my black '85 FB..
I just said fudge it and dropped the steering linkage to swap the oil pan.. it was leaking anyways. :D

The oil was as black as can be. :D lol

The air chisel and/or pipe wrench get my votes. Question is, how did the poster from "January 2005" make out?? Maybe he didn't use jack stands and is still under the car (skeletal form on top of a red stained floor) in his barn.

find an old nut and weld it on to your drain plug then just put your socket on the new nut and take out the plug.

Ah, yes, welding, that will do it.

Ray

I'm installing a new drain bolt and washer from Mazdatrix on the 13B going in the black '83. The old bolt was looking shabby.

Hey, I might as well contribute something useful to this thread. http://smileys.on-my-web.com/reposit.../happy-029.gif