Stripped oil pan threads

[Xist]

I drained my twenty-mile oil, installed the bolt from Ace, and put in new oil, but I figured that I only have three good threads. I used a torque wrench.

The Quick Valve is in the mail, but I cannot use it without replacing the pan, although I could tap out to a larger hole. That should arrive before my friend's coworker would be able to replace the pan.

Why am I not finished yet?!

[Xist]

I asked my friend to ask her friend if I needed Honda Bonda or RTV, but did not hear back. She made a first payment for Bacon, so I need to work out a contract. She really wanted me to have her friend fix my car and I kept asking her how that saved me either time or frustration, but she insisted that it would, then she was not clear on where to meet up with them, so that was a bad start. I stopped for RTV and then she was upset that I was late. I drove to the kid's house, he lifted my car, swore about tiny cars, and then said that he could not work on it.

I went to Honda, picked up the right gasket, returned the Fel-Pro one, and bought a breaker bar before driving home.

I still cannot remove those nuts! I removed the heat shielding on the exhaust pipe in order to access the one nut that seemed impossible. I sprayed it with PB Blaster several times, took my heat gun to it, and periodically hit the bolt dead center with my tap. Whenever I tried to loosen the nut, it just rounded the corners. I would hammer the socket to re-shape the nut, over and over, so I went back to Ace, found a replacement nut, but when I asked where to find a chisel, the gentleman told me to purchase a propane torch.

The nut was still rounded, so I rode my bike to purchase one of those, took off the dust shielding just to be able to use the chisel, and gave up when I realized that it would take hours and I would probably break the stud in the process.

I started taking apart the exhaust manifold heat shielding when I cut myself and decided that I needed to go inside and clean up.

I am not sure whether my sister would be more upset if I rented a car to make it to the Easter dinner after-party, or just said that I could not make it, but I am not putting my car back together now!

[ecomodded]

File or grind in a nick or groove on the edge of the nut and use the punch and hammer to spin it.

or

try heating around the threads with a soldering torch then try turning it

I often use a large or heavy hammer to smack the end of the wrench , in preparation file the worn nut or just hammer the next smallest socket on to it, then hit the end of the ratchet / wrench or breaker bar with a heavy hammer to loosing it.
If your still having trouble get a bigger hammer.

[nemo]

Or maybe a nut spliter.



I usually just split them with a chisel.

[Xist]

I used a propane torch, bought just for the occasion, and using a chisel as an arduously slow process. It was an awkward angle and I could only get in a few hits before the chisel flew at my face. Thanks, though.

You know, I think that I will see if I can fit a nut splitter in there. Thanks!

[Xist]

I ended up removing the intake manifold and hammering a 13mm socket onto the 14mm bolt. I guess that it would have been easier to use the smaller English socket, since it would have been closer in size.

When I decided to break that nut I bought a replacement, but one of the others is somewhat stripped, so I will replace that tomorrow, and I cannot find another, but otherwise, everything is back together.

I will do a write-up later. I did not feel that I could find complete instructions anywhere.

[Xist]

As I mentioned in http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post421474, when I hammered the smaller socket onto the nut, I ended up with a small crack in the manifold, and I put JB Weld on it to see if I still had a problem. [Edit: I swear there was a crack, but after the JB Weld melted off, I took it to a welder, and he could not find a crack.]

I do. I did not drive the car until today, less than a mile each way to Church, there was a burning smell, and when I made a visit just now, my car was hissing when I got back to it. I already pulled the manifold to replace the oil pan, so I can do that easily. The place that sold me the pan also has a manifold, but they want $140 for it. That is cool, I can purchase this for $46.98 off of eBay with free shipping.

I cannot help but notice that it does not have a catalytic converter... it sure is pretty, though!

I will be looking for a local welder and trying to figure out how to remove JB-Weld. That has to be easy, right?

The guy that made a visit with me told me that I was burning something and that it was electrical because my instrument panel lights pulsed. I had smelled the burning, that was definitely new. Finally, when I went to leave, my car was hissing.

When I was trying to fix the stuck nut I went to remove a bolt to be able to adjust the radiator in order to move the exhaust manifold. I learned that I chose a bolt that was not for mounting, but maintained a seal. I quickly had antifreeze spraying and somehow I have broken the seal, even though I never removed the bolt.

Hopefully a welder can fix the manifold, if I need to remove it I can do that easily, but I do not look forward to troubleshooting the electrical problem. How in the world do I fix the radiator leak?! He was insisting that it was my AC system, but the fluid was definitely green.

Oh boy...

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by Xist

A friend said that it is cheaper to have a shop change your oil, then they are liable for stripping the bolt, but what are the chances that a shop did this and did not tell the previous owner?

If you've been going to the same shop for a long time and they know they're the only ones who have been touching it, then most likely. If it's a good shop. And if they don't think they can convince you that "It's a common problem with those pans, I'm surprised yours lasted so long."

Originally Posted by vskid3

Even if a shop discovered the stripped threads, they probably would have done their best to hide it.

If the shop knows they've done it over time, they know they're the ones that are going to have to deal with it next time. If the shop discovers it, they'll tell you for sure- it beats those stripped threads being blamed on them a few months from now. If they discover it and don't tell you, then they might own a little bit of it. But they're not the ones who created the problem over time, so they've got no reason to hide it.

[Xist]

The guy at O'Reilly said that he could not give out advice, it would be a liability, so I went to Autozone. I drove my car way more today than yesterday and the AC system did not leak. The guy at Autozone thought that it sealed itself. There was a terrible burning smell yesterday, but I did not notice it today. However, the guy at Autozone said that I had a bad voltage regulator, which they would order for $170.

[NachtRitter]

Discovered a while back through experience that O'Reilly's charge double for simple parts... decided never to go there again.