In a message dated 7/29/2008 12:24:20 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
ALVentures@cox.net writes:
The oil drain is a tapered pipe thread – no way that is coming lose.
We put the car on stands after each session, looking for anything adrift, loose or leaking. So every 20 minutes we look at the bottom for sure, and before the race the top of everything. At the time the tool set for underneath included the hex drive for the tapered pipe threaded oil pan drain plug, that at that time was not wired. We lost the plug and oiled down the 180 behind the stands at IRP. All of the folks stopped by to thank us for hosing the qualifying session. I replaced all of the bearings and got the pan back on with the plug from the spare engine in time for the race.
After that, the plug was always wire. All tapered plugs need to be wired. Worst case is a transmission. The fill and drain plugs get loose when the trans is hot. Tight again when cold. They get wired. The rear seal in the transmission tail shaft is a light press fit. When the trans is hot, there is no press fit for anything. The seals are glued in with non hardening Permatex, and there are two sheet stock clamps that hold the seal in place, no matter the trans temp. Yes it has its own cooler.
Brake heat does the same thing to the aluminum hub seals. So there are clamps bolted to the hubs to hold the seals in place. The bolts are wired.
Lynn E. Hanover