In a crap predicament (drain plug issue)

[911pcars]

Originally Posted by McLovin

The answer has been given several times in this thread.

You can have that off in 5 minutes.

Use an angle grinder and simply grind the head off the bolt. Grind it all the way off, all the way down to the washer.

Once the head is off the bolt, ALL tension/torque will be gone. In other words, the torque on the bolt will be zero. You'll be able to easily unscrew the remaining bolt.

A cutoff wheel spinning at 10,000 rpm inches from your face while laying on your back can be pretty intimidating, even w/o metal sparks flying toward you. I would only try that with enough grinder minutes under your belt (practice). Better yet, remove the tank and do that on the bench. Don't forget adequate head, hand and body protection - it's much safer and with better control. Have you ever felt a thin cut-off disk shatter at speed?

Using a cut-off disk takes some finesse to prevent collateral damage to the tank. Without prior practice, doing this while lying on your back reduces the odds of success and increases the personal injury factor.

Sherwood

[HarryD]

Good for you to talk face-to-face. I hope they get this resolved to your satisfaction.

[CorsePerVita]

I win.


NO DAMAGE to the sealing surface OR the tank, but the tank had to come out.
I realize some of you may think rage faces are "silly" but this is pretty much how I felt after I got it out.

[James Brown]

[nickelplated5s]

Drop the tank, show it to them and make them replace it. A pipe wrench will work but you run the risk of marring the flange and fighting that seep later. Plus, if it's torqued like you say, you'd be putting too much pressure on the mounting brackets.

- marred mine when I was younger and dumber.

[kshafer1]

[Joe Bob]

Sometimes brute force with a club wins out over precision tools....good on ya....

[Ronnie's.930]

Originally Posted by nickelplated5s

Drop the tank, show it to them and make them replace it. A pipe wrench will work but you run the risk of marring the flange and fighting that seep later. Plus, if it's torqued like you say, you'd be putting too much pressure on the mounting brackets.

- marred mine when I was younger and dumber.

Uhhhhhhhhhh dude, look at the post two spots above yours . . .

[KTL]

I was going to say you need to embrace the masses and take the advice of vice grips or a pipe wrench, as they are your best bet. Glad to see you've gotten it off!

For future reference, people gotta embrace the pipe wrench. It's the baddest SOB in town when it comes to grip. Vice grips ain't got jack on Mr. Pipe Wrench. Vise grips only grip as well as the teeth can bite, and that's dependent on your kung fu grip strength. Meaning, how strong is your hand's grip, which determines how much "load" you can put into the vise grip. I consider myself stronger than the average guy and I can really load up a pair of vise grips. Once loaded, those suckers grip pretty good. And they also have a lot of stored energy to jack you up like Norm mentioned. I hate it when vice grips jump off and pistolwhip you........

Pipe wrench is all about how much force you can apply to it. Put a length of pipe on a pipe wrench handle and you can impart some MASSIVE grip on most anything. Think about it. A pipe wrench is specifically designed to grab smooth round things- HARD. The harder you push, the harder it bites. As long as you get the wrench snugly fitted around the offending piece (wiggle the head as you tighten the collar to get it nice & snug), you're going to get a good grip. Even on a small surface like the drain plug.

As an aside, I recently disassembled a Porsche oil cooler t-stat. Those stupid slotted caps....... What genious decided a screwdriver-like slot on such a large cap is a suitable tooling? Anyway, the winning tool was Mr. Pipe Wrench. Mangled the caps pretty good but I got 'em off. Nothing else was going to work. The fix will be to weld some aluminum bar stock (hex shape) to make the caps more serviceable.

[CorsePerVita]

Originally Posted by KTL

I was going to say you need to embrace the masses and take the advice of vice grips or a pipe wrench, as they are your best bet. Glad to see you've gotten it off!

For future reference, people gotta embrace the pipe wrench. It's the baddest SOB in town when it comes to grip. Vice grips ain't got jack on Mr. Pipe Wrench. Vise grips only grip as well as the teeth can bite, and that's dependent on your kung fu grip strength. Meaning, how strong is your hand's grip, which determines how much "load" you can put into the vise grip. I consider myself stronger than the average guy and I can really load up a pair of vise grips. Once loaded, those suckers grip pretty good. And they also have a lot of stored energy to jack you up like Norm mentioned. I hate it when vice grips jump off and pistolwhip you........

Pipe wrench is all about how much force you can apply to it. Put a length of pipe on a pipe wrench handle and you can impart some MASSIVE grip on most anything. Think about it. A pipe wrench is specifically designed to grab smooth round things- HARD. The harder you push, the harder it bites. As long as you get the wrench snugly fitted around the offending piece (wiggle the head as you tighten the collar to get it nice & snug), you're going to get a good grip. Even on a small surface like the drain plug.

As an aside, I recently disassembled a Porsche oil cooler t-stat. Those stupid slotted caps....... What genious decided a screwdriver-like slot on such a large cap is a suitable tooling? Anyway, the winning tool was Mr. Pipe Wrench. Mangled the caps pretty good but I got 'em off. Nothing else was going to work. The fix will be to weld some aluminum bar stock (hex shape) to make the caps more serviceable.

These were actually some vice grips. But when I looked at them, instead of being like normal vice grips where the teeth were straight down, these are hooked backwards so when you go to remove something it actually bites into them like an extractor. Tough SOBs. Found them at Lowes.

Nice thing is... instead of having to grab both handles, I can put all the force on the longest handle for leverage and due to the way it bites down, I was able to apply all the force there and "POP" it came right out.

[jlex]

I remember having tires replaced on my '85. Trying to get the lug nuts off afterwards was nearly impossible, but I did it.
I concluded that one of the clowns at the shop just wanted to screw around with a porsche owner & that was a good way to do it..... no real damage, just a lot of aggravation.
I think that's what you've experienced.... some wise guy just trying to give you the business...
Should have let them fix it...

[A horse with no name]

Hi...Glad you finally got it off- Good stuff!-

I like most have a numerous variety of "Vise Grip" pliers, including their C clamps ect...Interesting - They kind of look like a pair of Grip Lock Channel Locks.

Opps!- I just Goggled them - They are 'Vise Grip's.

Trivia: As a matter of interest to other Pelicans _ Newell Rubber-maid bought out the original Vise Grip in 2002 and in 2003 changed their name to Irwin Tools.

Irwin Vise-Grip GrooveLock Pliers Product Review- Irwin Tools Review

CHANNELLOCK GRIPLOCK®

Groove Joint Pliers - Gooseneck - Tools - IRWIN TOOLS


In 1985, the Petersen family formed American Tool Companies and bought out Petersen Manufacturing. In 1993, American acquired the Irwin Tool Company, and

in 2002, Newell Rubber-maid acquired American. In 2003, the company officially changed its name to Irwin Industrial Tool Company.[7]

In 2008, Irwin announced the closing of its DeWitt, Nebraska plant, ending 80 years of American production for Vise-Grips, citing a necessity to move production to China "to keep the Vise-Grip name competitive."[8]

[Jdub]

Anytime you can buy a new tool - well that is a great thing!

[porwolf]

Question for inquiring minds: What size of this "vice grip" tool did you use?

Originally Posted by CorsePerVita

These were actually some vice grips. But when I looked at them, instead of being like normal vice grips where the teeth were straight down, these are hooked backwards so when you go to remove something it actually bites into them like an extractor. Tough SOBs. Found them at Lowes.

Nice thing is... instead of having to grab both handles, I can put all the force on the longest handle for leverage and due to the way it bites down, I was able to apply all the force there and "POP" it came right out.

[porschenut]

I thought the shop agreed to do it for you. Change of plan?

[CorsePerVita]

Originally Posted by porwolf

Question for inquiring minds: What size of this "vice grip" tool did you use?

I spelled it incorrectly, "Vise-Grip" made by Irwin tools. Got it at Lowes. Exact part # is 2078112. 12" version.

http://www.amazon.com/Irwin-Industrial-2078112-12-Inch-GrooveLock/dp/B000A0WM2E

Originally Posted by porschenut

I thought the shop agreed to do it for you. Change of plan?

They sent me another email last night to "bring it in and we'll look at it" and that it was all due to my "inexperience" - that was from the shop owner. So it seems to be I would have been back to the start. I figured I'd give it one last shot. I figured at this point, it sounded like since they wanted to be flip flop on whether or not they'd "fix it" or "fix it at a price" I'd go ahead and just see if I could get it. So I did.

Good news is that now I don't have to deal with them anymore.

[jlex]

By "inexperience" I suppose they thought you were turning the bolts the wrong way....

[tobluforu]

Good job! That's a nice wrench, and the pipe wrench can be your friend, no doubt, especially when you try to take that big-ass ball joint nut off with that dumb socket that doesn't even work. Also, if you have said wrench like one above and you just can't quite grip it hard enough, not that I have that problem , take a hose clamp and tighten that sucker down on the end of the handles.

[Joe Bob]

So a valve or a standard replacement bolt?

[KTL]

I like the standard drain plug since it has a magnet on it.

If you REALLY wanna get fancy, get an Aeroquip quick-drain fitting. Takes Sherwood's Fumoto style drain to a whole 'nother level.....

https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/group.asp?GroupID=QDOILPLUGS

I have one on my Peterson oil tank. Haven't had a chance to see how it performs yet. Entire oil system is still in the design & purchasing stage!