Drill or punch oil pan?

str8stang036 · **Drill or punch oil pan? -** 11-30-03, 04:29 PM

I was thinking that drilling the oil pan is a lot easier than punching it, being that I cant find the punch I need to make the whole. Is the difference to drilling as oppossed to punching?

**ponyboy19** · 04:56 PM

Punch.. drilling means tons of shavings and the punch will roll the material inwards and give you the material to run a tap through it.

str8stang036 · 11-30-03, 05:02 PM

what if I plan on welding around the fitting afterwards, does it still make a difference?

**ponyboy19** · 11-30-03, 05:13 PM

well IMO the best way to do it is with the pan off and weld a nut on to the pan after the hole is drilled but I'm not sure about doing this while the pan is on the motor.. I often burn the used oil off in the burn barrel from oil changes.. well it don't take a lot to get a massive fire going with the oil so i don't think I would weld the oily pan while on the motor. Just my $.02 I'd punch it. tap it, and flush it and roll..

**mustangdaren** · 11-30-03, 05:47 PM

i bought a center punch to start my hole and a small pry bar with a tappered end to open it up. bar was about 18 inches long which made it easier to hold while hitting it with a hammer. I would only knock it in about 1/2 at a time and then cut it off as the hole opened to prevent from hitting the crank. Used a pair of calipers to measure the hole as I made the hole. For a vortech the hole should be 9/16 inch. I packed the tap with grease, tapped the hole, used a magnet to get any loose shavings. Cleaned up the hole and installed the fittings using rtv on the treads. I then drained the oil pan and changed the oil. I was worried about knocking ao hole in my oil pan for the install and had thought about going with a procharger due to this. Actually it turned out to be the easiest part of the supercharger install. Took about 30 minutes to do, even less if you got some help. Most of the time consuming part was crawling back out from under the car to cut the punch off. Had to cut it about 5 times until I got to 9/16 inch.

str8stang036 · 11-30-03, 06:40 PM

ponyboy- you saved my life man!! I never thought about the oil catching fire. I wish I could find the damn 9/16 punch to make things easier.

ThatStangGuy · 12-02-03, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponyboy19

. I often burn the used oil off in the burn barrel from oil changes....

that should be awsome for the environment....come on, can't you recycle it or somethin else

ger

**ponyboy19** · 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThatStangGuy

that should be awsome for the environment....come on, can't you recycle it or somethin else

ger

dude get real.. like a few quarts of oil being burned off in a contained drum a couple times a year is any worse than the millions of oil burning junkers out there on the street today. but since your on it I do have a 55 gallon drum of used oil that I was going to have picked up and recycled..

Oh wait maybe I do recycle.. Well maybe you can come down and pick that up for me since your so concerned about what I do. And I'm sure it's not any worse for our environment than accepting all the Canadian Trash into our landfills that we do here in Michigan.. You want to save a tree that's great, but maybe you should start a little closer to home.

**scheister** · 12-07-03, 07:46 AM

hehehe...I just spent 2 hours the other day finding the correct tap for the oil pan tap. It turns out, that for the Paxton install, you need a 3/8"x18 NPT tap. It's actually a pipe thread tap, but IS approximately 9/16". Just thought I'd warn you

**mustangdaren** · 12-07-03, 09:49 AM

It's the same for the Vortech. Expand the hole to approx. 9/16 inch and then tap with a 3/8 NPT tap 1/4 inch deep. Hole is 1 3/4 inch below pan lip and 1/2 inch rear from first bolt (pasenger side) on the motor. NPT measurements will confuse you a little, pipe is measured inner diameter unlike tubing that is measure outer diameter. That is why a 3/8 inch NPT tap is actually larger than 3/8 inch.

**mansonozz** · 12-07-03, 10:20 AM

I had to keep grinding my punch down as I got the hole bigger and bigger. It kept getting too close for comfort on the crank. Took a long time because of that, but my car works

I also spent WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too long finding that damn NPT tap. I spent about 4 hours driving to every damn store i could think of and had no luck. I ended up borrowing one from a guy on Stangnet.

A few weeks later I am suggested to go to an old school auto parts store downtown that I had never heard about, to get another hard to find part. I go up to the coutner to ring out, see a bunch of taps, and what the hell do I see staring at me but the 3/8 NPT tap? I wanted to scream!

str8stang036 · 12-07-03, 11:17 AM

I found the 3/8 tap easy, the damn 9/16 punch is whatI cant freaking find. Where did you guys find yours. Im going to be punching the pan next week.

str8stang036 · 12-08-03, 12:50 PM

Just wanted to tell you guys I found the 9/16 punch at do-it-yourself.com for $6.09. Finally!!