[TR] Oil Pan Drain Plug

[Randall]

> 1.B  Is this the type magnetized tip aftermarket plug you all 
> are familiar
> with, or did I somehow windup with some cross between a 
> donkey and a swan.B 

Depends on which oil pan you have.  Early pans had straight threads in the
drain plug, with a fiber washer and hex head on the plug.  Later pans used
standard tapered pipe threads.  The SPC gives the change point as TS18902E,
but of course early components are sometimes found on later cars.

> 2.B  A tapered plug SEEMS like it should not leak, but 
> without a true seal of
> any kind locking against the pan itself, it also seems 
> natural that there
> would be some weeping of hot 10/30 synthetic oil.B 

This logic escapes me.  A bit of 'Teflon' pipe dope on the threads should be
plenty to seal the plug against pretty much anything.  The stuff I got at
Home Depot is rated to something like 400F and 1000 psi.

But rather than ordinary 'soft' pipe plugs with those cheesy square heads
that round off; I prefer to use hardened plugs with hex socket heads.
http://tinyurl.com/ybh27wl

They are only a couple of $$ from MMC http://tinyurl.com/yb6kzw3

Much less likely to round, and easier to remove in tight places (like the
gearbox fill plug on the Stags).

-- Randall