LOLZ. The father of a dude I used to be friends with had a patch of dirt next to his garage that we called Chernobyl...kerosene/parts cleaner, brake kleen, antifreeze, everything except for straight used motor oil was disposed of there.

 

I worked at the TomaHawk Production Facility in Titusville Florida for 10 years and built over 1000 Tomahawk Cruis Missiles. One morning I had to leave early to go run some personal errands. As I was walking to my car, a new worker was washing down the floor of the Chemical Processing area where they treated the aluminum body of the missile by immersion in alodine and then a rinse.

They had overfilled the treatment vat and when they lowered a missile body into the vat, it overflowed badly. Being one of the production engineers originally then transferring to Reliability, I was naturally curious as to what had happened and what they were doing. The work center supervisor was recently promoted from being a parts mover to being a line supervisor and was a real bastard about being challenged on anything.

He told me to get the f out of the area and leave him and his workers alone, they had it under control. Since I was leaving for the day and did not want to create a scene, I went on to my car and left. They used the fire hose and washed the chemical solution into the newly installed storm drains just outside the building by the new cement driveway and went about their day.

The next day on the news, they reported a major problem at the Titusville Sewage Treatment Plant. Seems something killed all the bacteria and took the plant out of commision. An investigation had been started to find the source.

On my way to work the next morning I saw crews sampling the manholes on the main road leading from the Sewage Treatment Center and proceeding toward the Missile Factory. We watched from the second story windows as they did the manhole right in front of the plant, then turned into the driveway and proceeded right to that samestorm drain that the solution was washed down. The driveway into the building was stained from the drain right into the building to the tank.

That started a major review of every chemical we used and their method of disposal. The new Supervisor in our new Failure Analysis Lab opened his cabinet of various acids and etch solutions he used. When asked about disposal, he showed them that he turned the cold water on full blast and let it run for a minute or two, then poured the old solution down the drain and left the water run for a few more minutes before shutting ot off.

Since the measurements and limits were in Parts Per Million, he failed the standards of acceptability pretty badly.

I told that first supervisor, it would be better to wash it off into the sand, but he chose the storm sewer.

The company had to pay the city for the damages to the treatment plant and a huge fine to the EPA as well.

There was not enough water available in the state to safely dilute the spill we had.

 

Yah it's pretty bad when even though as refined as it is, oil is still not as destructive as gas with MTBE.

 

I changed my oil in my 96 for the first time today...uhhh....I got under there and changed the filter first I thought oh this is such a nice change I can crawl under here and actually get to everything.....an then the the plug....The oil was nasty so I am thinking he didn't change it in a while but man oh man that plug did not want to come off. First of all I couldn't believe it was so big....an me crawling under there with a 13mm ha! I had to go buy a big crescent wrench and back under I went. I grunted and farted and swore a little too...I sprayed liquid wrench antiseeze on it waited try again spray try again.....was starting to get frustrated and realized this fact so I went to run errands with my wife and when I came back she had suggested a hair dryer....so I went and got a heat gun....I heated....and I would try it heat more liq wrench being careful not to set the thing on fire.....and I came in here and looked at this thread and what you guys said if it is stripped it is stripped just lay into it...so i went back out and this time I put the heat gun on high and I heated it up for a good five minutes....and then I pushed against the front tire with my left hand and pulled with all my might with my right hand and it gave just a little and a couple more little grunts and I could undo it with my fingers....geez..thanks guys really it was good to have you standing behind me in spirit I was afraid I was going to strip it out.....this forum is a library of knowledge....and maybe a little bit of a support group hehe

 

Yah, I just got my new plug and crush washer from AB so I'll prob tackle that tomorrow, drop the pan, new gasket etc. I've got a pipe wrench since I know I've got a new plug.

 

The drain plugs get stripped because the quick lubes do not have a wrench big enough to fit the drain plug on a DI.
I would suggest to everyone that you buy the correct sized combination wrench and take it with you to the oil change place if you do not change your own oil.
If you dont eventually your oil drain plug will be rounded off and useless.

 

I feel your pain! It was so tight under there even with my mile of extensions(as recommended by another member on this forum), so I resorted to the Clark Griswold method and "Fixed the newel post!"



For the record, that is not how I put it back on!

 

what is the correct size ? I knew the crescent wasn't the right tool but it is what I could get my hands on.

 

1-1/8 inch

I got a socket at lowe's late last night after I finally found a thread with the size and Lowe's had their sockets on clearance. About 20% off, but their gear wrenches were half off!

 

This is why we have the tech section on the top of the page.