Technical Remove the drain plug without losing oil.

After doing a cam job on my 327 SBC. I drained the break in oil to add new oil with a little ZZDP and a new filter. I had wanted to add a magnetic plug for a little piece of mind. I looked everywhere in the shop , cause I thought I had one. Couldn't find it. It was 3 in the morning but I wanted to drive the Roadster the next day to work. So I put the old plug back in and topped it off with the aforementioned oil. I was telling a guy at work about it and he said when he was working for Ford they ran a plastic plug on one of their diesels and it always leaked. The way they changed it was put a shop vac on the oil fill and secure it . Turn it on and change the plug and it would slurp air but never lose a bit of oil. Well I bought my plug and went home and put my shop vac on the oil fill tube on my SBC at the front of the intake. I had a reducer that fit in it perfect. turned it on and had a friend watch the hose. But it could be secured with duct tape ,etc. if you are doing it alone. Got my new plug with thread sealer and pulled the plug. Not a drop of oil came out you could look in the hole and see the oil as it slurped gulps of air through the drain hole. put the new plug in and tightened it up. Shut down the vac and checked the shop vac hose. There wasn't a drop of oil in it. Hope somebody else can use this little trick if need be. Happy Motoring!

 

Who woulda thunk...... Good trick.

 

Well done! new tricks are still learned

 

Ha! tricky for sure. Great tip.

 

That might work for the first 100 people who tried it but, I would personally wind up with a shop vac full of 5 quarts of oil. I know how my luck works!

 

About that time the power would serge or someone would trip over the cord!

 

I've never had occasion to do this, but I'm certain it would work. Though I'd only try it with fresh oil or make absolutely sure that there was no fuel contamination in the crankcase. Sucking fuel vapors thru a shop vac could produce a sort of flame thrower effect.

 

Dogone physics, who'da thunk it?!

 

Nice !

 

Excellent! I have done similar to suck sealer into a leaky gasket, in fact now that you mention it I should do that on the rear intake of my SBC.

 

That's how my luck runs. I'd be the guys who has a hidden air leak in the crankcase or a bad pcv valve that lets air flow in and oil flow out vacuum or no vacuum. Still beats holding your thumb over the hole while swapping plug gaskets with the other hand and trying to get it back together though and I've done that a time or two.

 

Used to pull a vacuum on hydraulic tanks all the time to change out hoses, o-rings, maybe a pump even. But never used a shop vac, LOL! Snap On and Mac and the others all make a venturi style vacuum pump that works off of shop air, plug shop air in at one end and you get a vacuum source on the other end. But I've never done it on an engine, engines have other holes to draw air in from. I'm surprised you didn't have to plug up the pcv and/or breather to do this.

 

A friend of mine who was a field mechanic said they used the engine vacuum and a long hose with an adapter from the service truck to change hydraulic filters on a piece of equipment. Hooked it into the tank and restricted the vent on the tank a little. He told about it when I told him this story.

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very neat idea--would have never thought that would work. Thx

 

Read a similar tip like that for sealing up an engine. With no oil in the pan, run vacuum, and listen for "whistle leaks". Hit those with a dab of silicone, the vacuum helps pull the silicone into the void, and later the engine is sealed up tight.
Thanks for the tip ,and reminder.

 

Put your finger over the end of your straw.

 

This would have made a good...wait for it...

 

TECH WEEK POST!

 

Don't try it with the valve covers off.

 

Thumb, quick moves will come close, but this is a good idea if you have a shop vac.

 

I would have just stuck a strong magnet on the outside of the plug.

 

Back in the 50s and 60s if you used Quaker State oil and took the drain plug out, oil would not drain out till you got a screw driver and poked it in the oil pan hole, then it was good luck to get it all out. I'm not kidding worked at a gas station as a kid, saw it many times.

 

I believe that. Waxy oil, never liked it. I would imagine every engine using that stuff had more gunk than you could imagine.

 

Hold mah beer...Imma gonna try sumpthin'!
I'll be damned. It worked!
Great tip. Thanks.

 

We used a shop vac all the time on hydraulic systems. The only problem is the hoses are prone to collapse under full vacuum. I made an adapter to use a smaller hydraulic suction hose instead.

The same trick is used to pull electrical wire through conduit. Tie a piece of cloth or paper towel to a nylon string, suck it through the conduit instead of trying to push a fish tape through it then connect the wires to the string or a larger rope for larger wires. You can pull different strings for circuits that branch off the main line.

 

"And then she plugged in her new hair dryer.."

Seriously, great ideas in this thread.

I've had my Flowbee hooked to a dedicated shop vac for quite awhile.

 

I'll go you one better. I bought a Nova with an I6 from that same little old lady that "only drove it to church on Sunday" and "never run anything but Quaker State." When I removed the valve cover (I shit you not) the crud had formed to it like a jello mold ! I went in the house and got a tablespoon and a teaspoon to commence excavating. Never seen anything like it before or since (never ran Quaker State either.) Jeebus.

 

I have seen the same thing I don't know how they stayed in business?

 

In '86 we bought my wife a new car, dealer told us they had a special deal with Quaker State have us change your oil every 3k miles and the engine is warranted for as long as you own it. At 80k it had blowby so bad you couldn't keep the dipstick in it, and the dealer was out of business!
Now to keep this on topic, that's an incredible idea with the vac, but I know what would happen if I tried!
Ron

 

Now there are some of Dutch decent that just pull the plug, put your finger over the drain hole, position the new plug and install. The spilled oil can be mostly captured in an old clean cottage cheese container and reinstalled - just sayin. My daughter recently sent me a text and said she took my 10 yr old grandson to a museum that had old planes and some had drip pans. My grandson said 'this place smells like grandpa' - hmm.