[Shop-talk] Oil plugs, WHY?

[eric at megageek.com]

OK, this is half vent and half "can someone explain why the heck do they 
do this to us?"

I notice that just about EVERY modern's car drain plug drains horizontally 
and not vertically (where the plug come straight down from the bottom of 
the oil pan.)  This make's oil changes SO much harder and messier.

Then, I've even seen (2018 Ford F150) where it has a frame rail right in 
front of the oil hole and it splashes the nearly 2 GALLONS of oil 
everywhere.  Then, the oil filter has a 'slide' under it to redirect the 
oil to the front of the frame, which is nice, EXCEPT that it doesn't go 
all the way back to under the oil filter!  This means that some oil drips 
under the oil filter while more drips in front of the frame rail about 2 
feet away (meaning no single oil pan can catch both.)  I'm seeing this in 
more and more cars that have stupid oil drains.

Now I get that engines are sometime designed in a vacuum and the frame 
builders don't care what is in the way, but it just seems that for optimal 
oil changes, a plug should be at the bottom of the pan.  With all the 
environmental concerns, I would also imagine that any way to prevent oil 
spills and splashes would be ideal.

Can anyone explain this?  Or is it just a case of designers really HATE 
mechanics?


"Be as beneficent as the sun or the sea, but if your rights as a rational 
being are trenched on, die on the first inch of your territory." Ralph 
Waldo Emerson 
-Who is John Galt?
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