repair

[Chris]

well the check engine light resulted in a replacement of the O2 sensor. Not a fun bill but its fixed. I spent some time trying to remove the oil drain bolt, but its def. stripped and just spins. The oil only leaks out a little bit, so its ok for now. After some calls and reading, I realized the actual oil pan is stripped. Apparently there is only a small washer spot welded on the inside of the pan that has the treads to hold the bolt. I ordered a used oil pan and it will be here Friday. The problem is I can't drain the oil, so I'm either going to be very careful and remove the pan full of oil or should I drill a small hole in the pan to drain it? Does the oil just sit in the pan or is it at a level higher than the top of the pan?

RJ, I know you recently did something with your oil pan. Is this a hard task? From what I can see, there is only one bolt near the side of the tranny that will be hard to reach.

Hopefully I haven't made a poor decision, but putting in an oversize drain bolt may only be a temp. fix, and I'm home now where I can work in the garage and don't want to do this again.