GReddy Oil Pan Stripped Drain Plug Hole
 

Hi guys,

Ran into an issue changing my oil for the first time in a few years (Dealer has been doing it for about three years now) on my FI TTed 370Z.
When I went to tighten the drain plug, it stripped out on me prior to it tightening up. The drain plug is fine, it's the GReddy oil plug location that stripped out.. :shakes head:
Do I need to order a new pan or is there a fix where I don't need to replace the pan?
If there is a good fix, what do you guys recommend?
Thank you for the help!

You can drill and tap to a larger size, or helicoil the hole.

If I use a helicoil, I believe that you need to break off the part at the end that would fall into the oil pan. Is that a concern?
I was looking at this: https://time-serts.com/store/m12x125...-kit-pn-1212c/
More money for sure. Just want to do this right.

This happens a lot to the Greddy oil pans. We just tap them for a slightly bigger standard size.

Ended up pulling the Greddy oil pan and went with the Time-Sert inserts to fix the stripped threads on the drain plug hole.
Pan was a pain to break the existing RTV seal, but got it after a bit..
I am pretty impressed with the Time-Sert product and tools that were included in the kit (very sharp drill bit and tap and all around very high quality).
Install was a piece of cake and glad I pulled the pan so I could clean it really well before reinstalling the pan. I did use Red Lock Tite on the outer part of the insert piece although it's not required, I just added a bit for safe measures. Now it has steal threads!
Waiting for the new RTV to cure after reinstalling the oil pan on the car. Hopefully there are no leaks...
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Could have also used an oversize self tapping drain plug replacement.

Yes, but this seems to be a better long term solution.
It has steal threads now. I think this is how it should have come from the manufacturer.

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Nicely done.

Steel into aluminum is always a "proceed with caution". I imagine Greddy doesn't do it this way simply for cost and time.

A bigger picture an engineer may look at is that Steel and aluminum don't mix when it comes to galvanic corrosion. I doubt Greddy looked into it this far.

You put loctite on the threads, so that should offer some separation from the two different metals.

The steel plug going into aluminum would have been the same, but at least they are coated in oil all the time.

Classic case of over torque at dealership.

I think the inserts are"carbonized steal".. Not sure if that makes a difference.
They are apparently made for this application and more.

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The one place I worked at. Any and all drilled and taped threads in aluminum got a Helicoil insert. So it was steel on steel threads.

You mean Steel on Aluminum.?

Steel bolt on steel threads.

I was going to ask if you were referring to the bolt. :tiphat:
Yes that would be the case.

I was referring to the interface of the Steel helicoil going into the aluminum component.

zz

That's steel to aluminum. Done a lot of that with pumps, compressors, turbines.

I have driven the Z to work a few times and have about 100 miles on the fixed drain plug solution. No issues so far... :driving: