Oil Change Surprise - New Holland TLB

[Todd727]

This:

Not This:

That little hole in the middle and flat top almost guarantees that you will end up with a spill.

 

[Looking4new]

That yellow one is even better than my barrel.

 

[Todd727]

Yep. I've got both. Bought the black one first and had the same issues related in this thread. Saw that yellow one at Autozone or Wal-Mart and couldn't get it fast enough.

 

[Soundguy]

I own a New Holland LB75.B TLB with a 95 hp turbo-charged Iveco engine. The Operator's Manual calls for an engine oil and filter change every 500 hours. The engine holds three gallons of oil and the filter a quart, So that works out to a bit over 3 gallons with filter change.

I purchased the oil, filter, and a brand new 6-gallon drain tub for the job. After greasing all the zerk fittings on the underside of the tractor, I moved to oil change. The engine drain is a big hex-wrench plug about 1-1/4" in diameter. I figured it would be like my Cummins Diesel in my truck with a wide flange and a small opening. As I loosened the plug the last round and removed it, I immediately knew I had made a big error in judgement. The hole is about 1" in diameter and oil came gushing out like a geyser.:shocked: I realized too late that my engine oil tub's opening was way too small (about 1/2"). There was no way I was gonna catch all that oil. It filled the top of the tub and came spilling out on my cardboard creeper and made a quick path in my direction. I quickly scooted out from under the tractor and only got one arm and one sleeve on my t-shirt partially soaked. Some oil spilled onto the ground, but luckily, most was caught by the cardboard as the gusher quickly came to an end.

I sat there feeling really dumb because I could easily have drained that oil into a 5-gallon container and then transferred it to my oil barrel. Instead, I made a real mess. After getting the oil cleaned up, everything else went normally. I don't know if other engines are like this, but this was the first time I found a drain plug that flowed such a big stream. Wow!:confused2:

try the bung drain on an older ford. many of their lower pan drains front to rear are in the 2" variety.

on my 7610s with is also about 95hp and near 3g of oil.. I buy 3 jugs of the motorcraft powerstroke oil in 5qt containers. gives me enough for oil and filter and some mid year top off.

this story reminds me of the first time I changed the utf fluid in the 7610s. like 11-13gallons of oil.. and I dropped the plug in one of the 5g drain buckets I had setup. I was fishing for it frantically with my thumb stuck in the hole to staunch the flow!!!

 

[JDgreen227]

Another thread in the past about oil draining mentioned the difficulty in finding a large and suitable container for the purpose of catching a large amount of fluid. I have about a half dozen of these, sold as a "concrete mixing tub" at Menards and other home center stores for about $9. Size is 3 feet long, 2 feet deep, and they are 8 inches deep and hold 20 gallons. The only problem is they are impossible to lift and pour if you have more than 5 gallons in them, you need to empty them out with a bucket. They also make an excellent dip tank for trying to find a leak in a tire when you fill the tub with water.

 

[JDgreen227]

I bought one of those big tubs at Home Depot that are used for mixing bags of concrete. It's maybe 2' by 3' and holds a lot. It's big enough that I rarely spill even a drop, regardless of circumstance. I think this is the one: Large Mixing Tub-887102A at The Home Depot

They make a thicker one and a thinner one and you want the thicker one. It will hold more than you can handle so I limit to maybe 4 gallons and then funnel into a 5 gallon bucket. What drove me to this was a disaster of changing the gear oil on a high clearance Case-IH tractor and I managed to spill a couple gallons over me, the floor and most things in sight.

OOPS....sorry, it appears I duplicated your thread....me bad. Looking4New...I have a number of those magnets and the method for fishing out the drain plug works well IF the plug is steel. On my wife's Saturn, it is aluminum.

 

[jinman]

There are lots of great suggestions in this thread; a lot of "been-there-done-that" too.:laughing: I will certainly be better prepared the next time I do the oil change. I'm a quick learner after seeing that oil tsunami coming my way.

On my '96 Cummins 12 valve diesel, the drain plug is slotted so you don't have to remove it all the way. It has 4 slots that allow oil to drain out in a very controlled fashion. You don't have to worry about dropping the plug because it stays in the hole. It should also never get cross-threaded. Of course, you have to have some patience because the oil drains a little slower. I used to take my truck to oil change places so I didn't have to deal with the waste oil and it was much quicker than doing it at home. I would tell the oil change tech that the plug does not come all the way out and the slots drain the oil. Once, I took it to the oil change place and they had a new oil pit monkey hired. I told him the plug did not come out and the oil would drain fine. A few minutes later, he walked up to me all proud of himself and said, "See? It WILL come out. All you have to do is keep turning when it gets tight at the end of the threads." I thought I was going to come unglued. I couldn't say anything for fear of losing my temper. I just headed straight into the office and had a heart-to-heart talk with the manager. I told him that this idiot had ruined my oil drain plug and that I wanted him to pay for a new oil pan to be installed on my truck. I must have been pretty red in the face because he could see I wasn't kidding. He said he would carefully put the plug back in himself and tell me if it was ruined. He also said he would give me the oil change for free. He was able to get the plug back in without crossthreading it and I never went back. As a matter of fact, for about 8 years after that, I changed my own oil because I didn't trust the oil change places.

 

[slowzuki]

Almost all big equipment has the large holes. I know I've had to shove my thumb in there before to slow down the draining.

 

[sixdogs]

Almost all big equipment has the large holes. I know I've had to shove my thumb in there before to slow down the draining.

I have learned to put on a rubber glove and loosen the plug till it's almost out but I keep it somewhat pressed against the hole to restrict the flow as it drains. After about 4 gallons I loosly thread it back in, empty the container and do it again. Yes, I dropped the plug when I first tried this but since I use the 20 gallon mixing tub mentioned above, I already have my plan B in place. Haven't dropped the drain plug in five years, however and also haven't spilled any oil either.

 

[JDgreen227]

May be a bit off topic, but on my vehicles and changing the oil, while I rarely drop a drain plug into the catch basin, I am VERY good at dropping the oil filter when it finally comes off the engine, as they are both hot and slippery. In fact, I am so accomplished at doing that, I finally began removing the oil filters FIRST instead of the oil drain plug, and because the catch basin is empty, I don't splash oil all over if the filter drops. It only took me twenty years and about 150 oil changes to think of doing it that way...:laughing: