I went to change my oil tonight and sure enough I stripped the pan. I was turning the drain plug and it just turns and turns. Not good. So what is the best way to fix this problem. Tap it out, and plug it up with another drain bolt. Or is there another tool that I can use.

Thanks

87 300SDL

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Professional greasecar installer
Austin TX


98 Jetta TDI with grease car kit + veg-therm (totaled)
87 MB 300SDL running on B99 / greasecar kit + 30 fphe
www.austingreaseguys.com

The best way would be buy a new pan.

You can also tap it to a larger size and get a new bigger drain plug. There is probably helicoils you could get to repair to the correct size, but the cost would be more than a new pan.

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81 300SD daily driver/project
86 420SEL (sold)
85 380SE(in the graveyard)

Seems to me I've read of "repair" plugs for such accidents as yours . . . ask at your local auto parts store or even in the plumbing section of a hardware store.

BTW, this is another argument in favor of the oil sucker.

Jeremy

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

just remove the oil pan and get a new pan and drain plug.

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1986 300SDL, 211K,Dealership serviced its whole life
1991 190E 2.6(120k)
1983 300D(300k)
1977 300D(211k)

Good grief.
Yall are being a little over the top for just a few stripped out threads...
I will be back with some references... but I am sure a fix can be screwed into it with little problem and little money...

start here :

http://www.popularmechanics.com/how_to_central/automotive/1272161.html

Here is one of the best...

http://www.timesert.com/html/drainplug.html

Autozone rents out a tap and dye set for free ( you get money back when you return the item )

I used once on a Nissan oil pan, just tap it to a bigger or to a different size plug

A fast and easy fix but I don't recomend it for a long term use is the rubber plug they sell at some of auto parts stores it just gets pushed in and it have a expanding nut on it

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2003 GX470
1998 E300 3.0TD
2002 Dodge 2500 4x4 cummins
1998 Dodge 3500 5 speed Cummins

I got my 87 300D with a pretty mangled plug but it was the plug that was mangled, not the threads in the pan. I'd try a new plug before anything else.

Sixto
87 300D

I'm not sure I would run a tap in the pan with out it off the car to clean out all the metal shavings.

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

Anytime you run a tap into the car it should have heavy grease on the threads... and go in and back out in small increments cleaning the threads each time it is backed out...
But this is also one of the better places to leave metal shavings in... if one has to do that... first, you can flush from the top just by pouring oil in... and second, this is on the outside of the screen for the oil pickup...and the oil filter...
So , all in all, a pretty safe operation if you understand the physics of heavy grease.... this is used when reaming the glow plug holes also.....a pretty standard machining trick...

Wow, that's a great way to destroy the bearings in your engine and fry your turbo!




Remove the oil pan before you tap it, and rinse it out really well with a foaming degreaser before you reinstall it. You don't want any metal shavings in there, because otherwise you're looking at a world of potential problems - especially on turbocharged cars. Metal shavings can make it through the oil filter, and it makes your oil like a much 'finer' version of the chemical sludge sometimes used to port manifolds. Add that to the heat, tolerances & relative velocities encountered in an oil bearing turbo, and you've got a spendid little disaster on your hands in short order.

Pulling the pan is easy, and it's cheap insurance. Make sure you use a new gasket (duh?), and you'll find life is made much easier if you use some sort of silicon or Gasgacinch on the gasket (whichever is appropriate - I don't recall how tight the gasket tolerances on the Merc pans are).

That should not be necessary if you use a high quality gasket and torque the pan bolts correctly.

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

Only problem with an oil sucker is it doesn't flush any of the debris in the pan out. Draining the oil doesn't get all of it, but sucking the oil is only going to remove any contaminates that is suspended.

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81 300SD daily driver/project
86 420SEL (sold)
85 380SE(in the graveyard)

for a 617, that's not a bad idea as you'd spend nearly as much on a helicoil set, but for the 87 300SDL, an oil pan is not a $40 affair...

fastlane's got them for $411

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1985 300D cali 190K

http://mercedes.thatchermathias.com/mw300d.jpg

The suggestion is not made to stem leaks, because you're right that a good gasket, installed right, would be sufficient. Gasgacinch/ silicon help keep the gasket from moving around too much during installation, especially when everything is being lined up. I usually use a bit of Gasgacinch whenever I'm working overhead, just to make life a little easier. Less slippage = better alignment = less problems down the road.

This is a serious question :

How old are you ?

This concept of keeping metal cuttings in check has been proposed and talked about several other times in the archives... this is not even a radical idea...

The other cool trick is to use pretty hard wax... if you combine that with a tap with a spiral cut it will actually push the trash out the back side... a really helpful situation when using a bottoming tap...

You need to spend more time with old machinists before ringing any alarm bells...