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Oil Quick Drain Valve

Thank you Jereme. The one you like is almost twice the price of the Curtis CCB37000. Both get the same 4 stars on Aircraft Spruce's site.
 
Mattituck wasn't a fan of any of the quick oil drains when they were on Long Island, but told me the Saf-Air likely wouldn't kill me. Guess which one I use on my airplanes?
 
Problems with quick drains?

I have always built with or converted (factory planes) to quick drains. Never a problem beyond dripping after years use which was solved with new rings or replacement. I have met a few owners in 4 decades of plane ownership, and dont recall any traumatic failure reports. Yet, we still hear that they are "not liked" or "recommended against." Why?

Does anyone know of a failure of a QD valve, or other problems caused by them, in a fixed gear airplane?
Other than some valves interfering with retractable landing gear, I don't know of any.
 
Thank you Jereme. The one you like is almost twice the price of the Curtis CCB37000. Both get the same 4 stars on Aircraft Spruce's site.

Ya I sure as heck wasn't thrilled at the price either but I figure everyone recommending them consistently was for a reason. Also read a report or two of people with a minor drip and Safair simply replaced the unit at no charge.
 
One Weird Quick Drain Problem

The Piper Arrow III was delivered with a special low profile drain valve and a removable plug-in tube, stored on a clip on the cooling baffle. Reason was that the nose gear retracted all close and cozy to the bottom of the engine. There was a Service Bulletin saying somebody had replaced the factory valve with a more conventional one and, you guessed it, when the gear retracted it pushed the valve open. All the oil got out and there was a forced landing with a very expensive seized engine. And that’s the one and only problem I’ve ever heard of about an oil quick drain valve. Not likely to be a problem on our fixed-gear RVs. Maybe somebody on this forum has other tales to tell?
 
Leaker

Does anyone know of a failure of a QD valve, or other problems caused by them, in a fixed gear airplane?
Other than some valves interfering with retractable landing gear, I don't know of any.

I just installed a new Saf-air quick drain a few weeks back, it had a small leak out of the “spout” and turned what should have been a quick oil change into a several hour ordeal of redraining and refilling the oil after going back to the original old school plug. I haven’t returned it to spruce yet and not sure if I want to risk that mess again
 
But how do you safety wire?

There’s no way a tightened Pipe thread fitting is going to come loose. None of your B-nuts or hose ends are safety wired (with the exception of the in tank fuel pickups) and they don’t come loose. I wouldn’t worry about the pipe thread coming loose.
 
clip

For the folks using the Fumoto quick drains, do you use the optional lever clip or the metal clip?
 
If your dip stick is located on the low side of your motor, there is no reason you can't just pump the oil out right into a waste container. Most drain locations are not in the lowest position.
 
If your dip stick is located on the low side of your motor, there is no reason you can't just pump the oil out right into a waste container. Most drain locations are not in the lowest position.

I use this method in my car but with the superior cold air sump, there is a little area just above the drain that would be missed, unfortunately. Perhaps with the standard sump it would work. It takes the pain out of an oil change.

I have a fumoto but don't use it as I decided to use the anti-splat magnetic drain plug. I sure hope I never see anything on that magnet!
 
Fumoto is on my engine.
It has WAY more field service experience (via industrial market) than all of the specialized aviation units combined.
A few more grams are worth it.
 
Regarding the Fumoto, I bought one for my truck. Just got it and I like it. I'll need to drill a safety wire hole if I buy one for El ZunZun.
 
Fumoto Safety Wired

This is how I safety wired the Fumoto quick drain. I drill a 0.062" hole on each side of the valve (2 places), in the radius of the small flange. One of the holes I safety wired the quick drain valve to the engine oil sump (this hole is on the other side of the valve in the pic). I never remove this safety wire when I change the oil. The other hole (the one shown in the pic) is the hole I use to safety wire the quick drain lever in place.

The thing to remember here is the lever is spring loaded into the slot on the side. This should prevent the valve from opening. However, I went ahead and safety wired it so you can't pull the lever out of the slot, thereby allowing the ball valve to rotate open. I also drilled a 0.062" hole in the lever too.

This way the quick drain valve should never screw out of the oil sump (first paragraph), and the ball valve lever should never come out of the retaining slot (second paragraph).

I hope this helps.

Jeff
 

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Loctite 565

I used Loctite 565 on the pipe threads. Great stuff.

Be sure to clean both the male and female threads of dirt/oil with some alcohol to get rid of anything that can prevent the sealant from working properly. I found inserting a paper towel a little bit into the oil sump helps to wick out any oil that slowly keeps dripping out. That way you can clean the female threads properly.

I always find it funny when I hear people say: "Loctite don't work!!". And then I ask them if they cleaned the threads prior to using Loctite with something like alcohol or acetone. The answer is almost always no. Then I say "So... You expect "glue" to stick to oil and grease? Good luck with that..."

I hope this helps.

Jeff
 
Not a Fan!

--- We are not a fan of so called quick drain valves, for several reasons. One is
we see many that are leaking, and would better be referred to as slow drain valves.
Secondly, you are not doing yourself any favors from a time standpoint, as you
should be removing your cowl to change the oil filter as well. This process also is
an opportunity to look things over for current or potential problems before they
become life changing or at best, less expensive to rectify. When considering the
time involved in this process, unscrewing a drain plug is a very insignificant amount
of savings. The third, and most important reason in our view to avoid these drain
valves and have a simple drain plug is as follows. With the use of a good quality
high power magnetic drain plug like the unit we offer, or anyone's for that matter,
affords you a visual opportunity to view exactly what wear and possible issues are
happening inside your engine. This magnetic plug will collect all ferrous materials in
your oil, prior to them entering and destroying your oil pump. Your oil filter will
catch most large pieces of this destructive material, but this is after the fact as the
oil pump damage will have already been done! This powerful rare earth magnet
will catch and display for your inspection, all of this material, including the
microscopic pieces that easily pass right through your filter. This material is
the wear from all steel and cast iron components, piston rings, cylinders, camshaft,
lifters, all accessary case gears, bearings, and oil pump. This is what will keep
circulating, over and over thousands of times taking its toll on you expensive
engines life expectancy and reliability. This ferrous material in suspension is the
most destructive thing you can have in your oil, other than sand or cleanser
type abrasives. These are the only things that can wear out your engine, and
eliminating them can extend its usable life by a huge margin. Sorry! I don't want
to run on and on, but I can't stress this enough, and I hope this will help save
a few engines and costly repairs. Thank You for reading! Allan:D
 
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