Oil drain spacers?

[JCKnife]

From the -20 maintenance manual:

1. Remove two drainplugs (3) and spacers (2) from engine oil pan (1), and allow oil to completely drain.
Discard spacers (2).

2. Install two new spacers (2) and drainplugs (3) on engine oil pan (1).

Can I just re-use the old spacers, or if not, what is a suitable replacement?

Tried a search for "oil drain spacer" turned zero results.

 

[Westech]

spacer is the copper gasket I think.. and yes till they brake or start to leak.

 

[Heavysteven]

I reused mine no issues so far.

 

[WillWagner]

I've done a mess of fluid changes and re used them with no issues. Use a torque wrench.

 

[Jake0147]

My take on it was also that they meant the sealing washers. They are reusable, but they do have a limited life span. Each time you crush them they "work harden" a little bit and take a little bit more torque to seal as well as before. Of course a little more torque is a bad idea... so their life becomes finite. They don't fail instantly, they fail with a weep (wet spot, no drips) at first, so IMHO it'll tell you when it's ready to be replaced.

Depending on the washer, I've seen them ask to be replaced in a little as two or three uses, or last through dozens. but it will tell you when with a weep (possibly a drip) long before it leaves an oil slick.

 

[tm america]

they are reuseable but if yours are bad you can get them at autozone or any auto part store. they are just oil drain plug gaskets

 

[JCKnife]

I've done a mess of fluid changes and re used them with no issues. Use a torque wrench.

I'm not seeing a torque spec in the TM; what are you torquing it to?

Edit: I'm sorry if this is ridiculous minutia. I'm just trying to read up and fully understand things before I go wrenching on it.

 

[Westech]

tight.

 

[runk]

oil drain plug gaskets available ????

My washers were thoroughly used up, and leaked. I looked all over, including some serious specialty industrial gasket / seal places, and could not find anyone with copper sealing washers in anywhere close to the correct size. I talked with an application engineer at one of the seal vendors, and he confirmed that the copper seals are pretty much unavailable theses days, they stopped selling them just a couple of years ago. The newer fiber gaskets are just as good and a lot cheaper, his advice was to buy a roll of gasket material from the autoparts store and cut them out myself. Did that, and no leaks so far.

If you've got a source for the correct copper seals, I would be interested.

If they aren't too beat up, you can anneal the copper with a propane torch. Heat it to cherry red (a little hard to see in the copper), and then let it cool slowly. Sand out the ridges on a piece of wet sandpaper on top of a really flat surface (plate glass, granite, solid counter top, ...) in a circular motion. (wear gloves so you don't sand down your fingertips as well ) And then anneal the washer again. This process worked well for some copper sealing washers for the injectors for an old diesel tractor I've got.

 

[velociT]

Is that the smallest gasket that comes with the ODIron filters?

Lemme see if I can snap a pic.

Here's a link to the pic since coding is off

[URL="http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4360/oilfiltergaskets.jpg"]http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4360/oilfiltergaskets.jpg[/URL]

 

[runk]

With the Baldwin filters, the smaller gaskets were the seals around the bolt for the canister. The oil drain plugs are relatively huge.