Aredubjay: Unplugged
 

I figured I'd go ahead and post the story before the "puns" started rolling.

On my way to "Snowshoe II" I had a small "incident."

First of all, I had just come out of a "bottleneck" outside Lexington, KY. Traffic jams are one of my pet peaves. I use a lot of "bowling words." It took us 45 minutes to go five miles in our second of two traffic jams.

Finally, we break through all the slow traffic and I get to pick up a bit of speed. I'm running about 80 and have just switched into the left lane to pass a bunch of the traffic that had been stacked up by the bottleneck, when I see an Audi Allroad beginning to get larger in my rearview. I punch it and I'm running about 95 when the Allroad "freezes" in size in the mirror. Then, suddenly I hear a "pop" and I begin laying down a smokescreen that would make James Bond proud. I'm thinking, "OH (bowling word deleted)!"

The bad thing is, is that I had no shoulder to the left to pull off on and needed to make my way to the right shoulder -- figuring I'd blown a tranny cooler hose, I didn't want to go too far for fear of toasting the tranny, but, had to let this long row of cars I'd just passed, get by so I could drop back and take the shoulder.

I finally got pulled over, got out of the car, walked to the passenger's side where my car was "puking" fluid. I put my finger in the ooze and brought it to my nose, expecting to smell tranny fluid. It was motor oil! I looked beneath the car to find that my oil drain plug had fallen completely out (thus the "pop" I'd heard before the plume).

A long story made short: A nice sheriff's officer stopped to offer assistance, but had to go to court . . . I called Allstate Autoclub who sent J.R. from Eddy's Shell in Morehead to flatbed me to his shop and replace the drain plug and 7 quarts of Castrol GTX . . . I called Bill Moore, who went to the local Suby dealer and picked up a new drain plug and was headed toward Morehead, just in case they couldn't find a drain plug there, but, I called and let him know they could and they stopped in Grayson and waited for us --We waited for the flatbed for about 20 minutes -- once there, we were in and out in about 15 minutes -- great bunch of folks at Eddy's (ironic, huh? :D). It was as "pleasant" an experience as it could've been, I reckon. All in all, everything turned out okay (at least I didn't drop the plug in the traffic jam, where the oil would've drained out unnoticed and I fried my engine).

The moral of the story is, if you put a new gasket on your drain plug, while changing your oil, make sure it's an OEM metal gasket, and not an A/M replacement that you feel like you might wreck by over-torqueing -- and end up not torqueing enough to keep the sucker in for more than a week.

Yes, I feel stupid, and have a right to. Thank you very much.

Silly Randy, plugs are for...crap, I can't finish it...too late in the day.

Sorry to hear about the problem, but glad to hear it all turned out okay.

Is it possible that it came loose because of a little rubble strip action on that left shoulder? Only kidding. I have reused the oem gasket several times, crevice side toward the pan. It is always tight when it comes off. How long did you run the engine after the pop?

My problem was (and I wasn't going to admit it, but since I've already embarassed myself ... what the hell) I used one of those a/m compressed paper gaskets. I didn't want to distort it by torquing it down too tightly. It won't happen again, believe me. I ran for about another mile before I could pull over (after the pop). I think centrifugal force helped hold some oil as well as the oil that had already been pumped into the top end. About four quarts drained onto the ground when I stopped. I'm also lucky I didn't cavitate the oil pump. Sheesh! So many "Thank you God's" to be said. :)

Mr. Pockets,

What is it with your potty mouth? First poop, now crap... Tsk Tsk... :D

VK

You have no idea.

By cavitate, do you mean just get air bubbles in the pump? If so, I don't see how that would be a problem. After all, wouldn't you think air bubbles going through the system are not only possible, but likely, after an oil change?

Cavitation, remember, is not just the existance of cavities (bubbles) in a fluid. It's actually caused by a fluid flowing over a solid body so fast that it drops in pressure and changes to a gas.

I don't see how this could be caused by the oil draining out. The oil pump, if I understant correctly, is driven directly by the engine. Loss of engine oil would not cause the pump to increase in speed. And if it did, how fast would the sucker have to spin to cause 10W-30 to change to a gas? I think at that point you'd be looking at so many problems, the small cavitation effect your pump was showing would be the least of your worries.

But then, what the hell do I know? :)

Unless I'm terribly wrong here (and it's very well likely), our cars use what's known as a spur gear pump. Here's a little lesson on how cavitation can harm such things:

http://www.nitronic.com/research/plo.html

The author seems to know what he's talking about, but his sentences are difficult for me to understand and his analogies aren't really accurate. I'm trying to find more info. Something with pictures I can understand. :)

He's right about one thing: cavitation is destructive. I'm just not sure yet how your loss of oil could cause it, unless the drop in the oil pump intake pressure is the cause. I also question just how destructive cavitation for the oil pump could have been over such a short distance.

I don't understand yet, but I'm working on it.

Don't worry about it. It didn't happen, that's all I'm happy about. It probably couldn't have been too destructive over such a short distance. It's just one of those "what if's" that rambled through my mind after I saw my oil pan "puking" oil . . . what if the plug had dropped out while I was inching along in the traffic jam and didn't create a plume of smoke . . . what if I couldn't find a drain plug in "podunk" . . . what if the service station I went to was actually a meth lab or an anthrax processing station . . . You know, those kind of things.

This one has pictures -- maybe it'll help.

http://www.osmonics.com/products/Page785.htm

But, don't worry about it. It's not that big-o- deal.

......and to think, i let you do a mod for me??!!
 

god knows what could have happened to my svx! :D hahahaha.....hey randy dont stress so much, **** happens...;)

Re: ......and to think, i let you do a mod for me??!!
 

You're telling *ME*? It happened before the VT and Snowshoe I meets (Tranny went), it happened before Reading II meet (TPS or something went), it happened before the MWM (crunched fender), and, it happened before Snowshoe II. Do you think I could buy a policy from Lloyds of London that would take care of ANYTHING that happens prior to an SVX meet? I actually thought I'd get through one without the "Meet Monster" visiting me. So far, Reading I and Smokies I were the only "non incidental" meets -- that is if we don't count "Autofest" as a "meet" (I'm calling it a "show" so my car won't think it owes me one). :D

I thought I had a rough morning. While cruising on my way to work, I noticed Battery, ABS, and both Brake lights were flashing rapidly. (Being a SVX owner taught me not to panic in an emergency.) I first thought it was a bad battery so I continued to drive but noticed I didn't have power steering while exiting. While waiting for a green light trying to recall if I read this kind of "symptom" on any post, I'd figured I'd try to restart the car, to see if it would do anything. Boy, was I wrong! For the next 30 min. I was stranded in the middle of the road with my alarm constantly going off! The car simple wouldn't crank! While waiting and hoping the battery might recharge enough to start-it was so dumb now I think about it-a police officer stopped behind me and asked to help. He said he was smelling something burning and wanted me to open up the hood. No sign of smoke whatsoever but surprised to find fine threads all over where an alternator belt used to resides! While waiting for a tow truck, the office called for another officer to push the car to the side. The only problem was that none of us couldn't shift out of Park. Fortunately I had the owner's manual and read over how to disengage in an electrical malfunctioning situation. (Same problem while unloading the car.) The garage had to wait a while for the part but it only took two min. to replace the belt. A definitly DIY job with right tools. All in all, with a flatbed towing, it costed me $110.00-not too bad. Now here is my guestion-unigue Boxer design of Subaru engines should not damage any other part should a belt breaks, right?

Will a broken belt cause damage to the engine?

Accessory belts: Not that I know of. If an accessory belt breaks, the accessories simply stop running. This means AC, power steering, alternator, etc.

You don't want the power steering to fail for any reason. The SVX is a pretty heavy car with wide tires and it is extremely difficult to steer without power assistance.

Timing belt: No, but it's not due to the boxer layout of the engine. The engine will not damage itself if the timing belt breaks because it is a 'non-interference' engine. This quality, as far as I know, can be built into any engine design. Most manufacturers, however, choose not to.

Disengaging Park?
 

For those of us without an owner's manual......

Could someone please explain the above procedure?

Thanks!

:)