Engine oil drain plug torque

[Willy]

I understand the plug has to be tightened with care since the bottom of the engine is aluminium.
It is not the first time I drain the engine oil, but this time, when removing the plug, it felt as if it
wasn't very tight. So I payed extra attention when tightening the plug, new washer, torque key
set at 35Nm per Volvo spec. And this felt if it was too little (so I added a bit of torque :rolleyes:).
Am I the only one to have this impression? You know, once doubt sneakes in.....
Willy

[billr99]

I understand the plug has to be tightened with care since the bottom of the engine is aluminium.
It is not the first time I drain the engine oil, but this time, when removing the plug, it felt as if it
wasn't very tight. So I payed extra attention when tightening the plug, new washer, torque key
set at 35Nm per Volvo spec. And this felt if it was too little (so I added a bit of torque :rolleyes:).
Am I the only one to have this impression? You know, once doubt sneakes in.....
Willy

I do my strictly by feel and have never stripped a pan, had a plug fall out, or actually had a leak (assuming a new washer). These guys that strip the threads must be absolute gorillas as I probably put about 35Nm by just putting a bit of my Wheaties to it. I even had a plug in a new SAAB I bought once that took a 4 foot breaker bar to break loose and the thread was OK.

Cheers,

Bill

[Aviator]

I torque mine to 32 lb/ft. The first change I did on that car, I over-torqued to about 47 lb/ft because it just didn't feel tight enough at the correct torque. I shat bricks for 6000 kms until it was time to do the next change. The drain bolt was fine and so were the threads in the pan.....no harm done.

Dave.

[budrichard]

No problem by hand!
I've taken the plug off after my indy guy changed oil and had to get a breaker bar to do it, so its very hard to really damage the plug threads or the pan threads.-Dick