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New Style Inner Drain Plug

17K views 15 replies 10 participants last post by  Lee510 
#1 ·
For those of you that do your own oil changes The K1600 motor has 2 drain plugs. The main plug in the oil pan & an inner (smaller) drain plug inside the oil pan. Another forum member paid to have some custom ones made to make the oil change easier of which I bought 2 to see how they were made. The stock plug uses a 5 mm allen wrench to remove. The problem is it has to come out of the main drain plug hole. If you knock the plug off the wrench you loose the plug in the oil pan & may have to remove exhaust & oil pan to get it out. The New ones have a short piece of allen wrench welded to the plug.

Ok that it the back story of the inner plug. I have made 2 of them myself & mailed them to 2 other members here. I have another ready to mail out.

If you want one they are FREE... BUT you must send me your stock plug so I can continue to make more & send them to on to the next person. Just PM me with your address & I'll send this one to the first person & as I get more back & make more will continue to send them out as well.

Here is a pic of the NEW style plug.
 

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#2 ·
That's awfully generous Steve and I'd take you up on it, except for the fact that I paid quite a bit more for the other one last month.

Well worth it and you should be compensated for your work and shipping.

It is also helpful to have the socket that will hold the allen drive. I bought mine from Snap On tools and I remember reading that Sears has them too for a lot less.
 
#3 ·
DanDiver said:
That's awfully generous Steve and I'd take you up on it, except for the fact that I paid quite a bit more for the other one last month.

Well worth it and you should be compensated for your work and shipping.

It is also helpful to have the socket that will hold the allen drive. I bought mine from Snap On tools and I remember reading that Sears has them too for a lot less.
I've also seen them at Sears for about 5 bucks. I already had one in my Sears tool box I bought years ago & never used it till now.
As for the shipping it only takes 2 stamps on a standard envelope. I have a small piece of foam padding with a cut out in it to hold the plug from moving around during shipping both ways.
 
#4 ·
katnapinn said:
For those of you that do your own oil changes The K1600 motor has 2 drain plugs. The main plug in the oil pan & an inner (smaller) drain plug inside the oil pan. Another forum member paid to have some custom ones made to make the oil change easier of which I bought 2 to see how they were made. The stock plug uses a 5 mm allen wrench to remove. The problem is it has to come out of the main drain plug hole. If you knock the plug off the wrench you loose the plug in the oil pan & may have to remove exhaust & oil pan to get it out. The New ones have a short piece of allen wrench welded to the plug.

Ok that it the back story of the inner plug. I have made 2 of them myself & mailed them to 2 other members here. I have another ready to mail out.

If you want one they are FREE... BUT you must send me your stock plug so I can continue to make more & send them to on to the next person. Just PM me with your address & I'll send this one to the first person & as I get more back & make more will continue to send them out as well.

Here is a pic of the NEW style plug.
You are kidding, right? I thought BMW had hit the height of stupidity when they put a filter designed for external use inside the oil pan on the LT. However, placing a second drain plug in a place where it can be lost into the oil pan takes stupid to an entirely new plane! What are they thinking in Bavaria these days?

What does this second plug drain? Does it really let that much more oil come out? I still think you are making this up. Is it April 1st already and I just missed it? :)
 
#7 ·
Voyager said:
What does this second plug drain? Does it really let that much more oil come out? I still think you are making this up. Is it April 1st already and I just missed it? :)
The oil handling in the K16 engine is moderately complicated -- two circuits, effectively "dry sump," using (i) an upper sump plate to form the bottom of the dry sump portion of the engine (the upper level with the second drain plug), (ii) an oil reservoir at the rear of the engine case, and (iii) an oil accumulation "trench" between the catalytic converters (the lower drain plug):



So, yes, draining the upper level is necessary. The price for obtaining many of the benefits of the some of the unique component layouts which make this engine possible. While I can think of better ways to ensure the upper sump plug comes out than what we got, the 5 mm Allen addition takes care of the problem. I'll happily take this minor pita in exchange for what you get with this engine design.
 
#8 ·
mneblett said:
The oil handling in the K16 engine is moderately complicated -- two circuits, effectively "dry sump," using (i) an upper sump plate to form the bottom of the dry sump portion of the engine (the upper level with the second drain plug), (ii) an oil reservoir at the rear of the engine case, and (iii) an oil accumulation "trench" between the catalytic converters (the lower drain plug):



So, yes, draining the upper level is necessary. The price for obtaining many of the benefits of the some of the unique component layouts which make this engine possible. While I can think of better ways to ensure the upper sump plug comes out than what we got, the 5 mm Allen addition takes care of the problem. I'll happily take this minor pita in exchange for what you get with this engine design.
One wonders if this really is necessary though. Many other high performance engines seem to get by with simpler systems.

Alternatively, it seems that BMW could have designed a drain plug that has the threads only on the bottom part and the top part has a plug with an o-ring that just seats against the upper part of the "pan" so that removing one plug allows both chambers to drain.
 
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#9 ·
I don't own a 1600 yet. I hope to purchase one of the second generations. I want a different color than the two offered on the GT. If one wanted to remove the inner plug and not drop it, is there room for a short piece of conduit as a guide sleeve to the lower plug hole? Small extension up thru the tube to 5mm socket?
 
#10 ·
McWideglide said:
I don't own a 1600 yet. I hope to purchase one of the second generations. I want a different color than the two offered on the GT. If one wanted to remove the inner plug and not drop it, is there room for a short piece of conduit as a guide sleeve to the lower plug hole? Small extension up thru the tube to 5mm socket?
Only if it has a very thin wall as the inner plug is not much smaller then the main drain plug hole. Maybe a thin piece of tin rolled then put into the hole & let expand against the sides of the main drain hole then pushed up till it goes around the inner plug.
 
#12 ·
sarmand said:
Has anyone established how much oil is trapped above the internal drain plug? It might not be enough to bother with.
It's enough for me -- 1/2 quart? maybe a bit more? In addition to the flat area of the inner sump pan, it has a small built-in reservoir from which the oil cooler pump takes suction -- this is where the upper drain plug is located.

Could you pass it? Sure. But when I drain oil, I don't like the idea of leaving a significant quantity of old oil in the crankcase. I imagine "significant" is in the eye of the beholder -- 10% or more of the nominal crankcase capacity is more than I care to leave in. If the stem on my replacement inner drain bolt breaks off, I may skip an upper draining or two, but I would eventually figure out how to cleanly remove the stuck upper drain bolt.
 
#13 ·
That's exactly where I'm at. I felt I was being very cautious, but I managed to round off the 5mm hole in the upper sump. So, since I was prepping for a ride with others later that day, I left the 2/3 of a quart of oil in the upper sump and moved on with my day. I realize this isn't ideal, but hey... The new oil being 85% fresh, hardly has any 'used' color to it at all right now, and all seems to be fine. But my choices are either I remove the lower sump completely (tupperware, exhaust, what a pain in the azz...), or I try to use a screw extractor to remove the 5mm threaded bolt. This was my 5th oil change on 2 GTL's; the second on this bike - which I've performed flawlessly until now. I think since the engine was real warm, the bolt had swelled enough to make breaking it free difficult. I should've let it cool down more and bought the super plug!
 
#15 ·
For those of you that do your own oil changes The K1600 motor has 2 drain plugs. The main plug in the oil pan & an inner (smaller) drain plug inside the oil pan. Another forum member paid to have some custom ones made to make the oil change easier of which I bought 2 to see how they were made. The stock plug uses a 5 mm allen wrench to remove. The problem is it has to come out of the main drain plug hole. If you knock the plug off the wrench you loose the plug in the oil pan & may have to remove exhaust & oil pan to get it out. The New ones have a short piece of allen wrench welded to the plug.

Ok that it the back story of the inner plug. I have made 2 of them myself & mailed them to 2 other members here. I have another ready to mail out.

If you want one they are FREE... BUT you must send me your stock plug so I can continue to make more & send them to on to the next person. Just PM me with your address & I'll send this one to the first person & as I get more back & make more will continue to send them out as well.

Here is a pic of the NEW style plug.
[/QUOTE
For those of you that do your own oil changes The K1600 motor has 2 drain plugs. The main plug in the oil pan & an inner (smaller) drain plug inside the oil pan. Another forum member paid to have some custom ones made to make the oil change easier of which I bought 2 to see how they were made. The stock plug uses a 5 mm allen wrench to remove. The problem is it has to come out of the main drain plug hole. If you knock the plug off the wrench you loose the plug in the oil pan & may have to remove exhaust & oil pan to get it out. The New ones have a short piece of allen wrench welded to the plug.

Ok that it the back story of the inner plug. I have made 2 of them myself & mailed them to 2 other members here. I have another ready to mail out.

If you want one they are FREE... BUT you must send me your stock plug so I can continue to make more & send them to on to the next person. Just PM me with your address & I'll send this one to the first person & as I get more back & make more will continue to send them out as well.

Here is a pic of the NEW style plug.
Hi Stevie,
I ll take one if you have one ready. my address is:
9923 NW 29th St. Doral, FL. 33172
I will send the old one back, and please let me know how much I owe you.
thank you!
Jose.
 
#16 ·
On the K1600 forum, same owners as this one, RL Lemke has an internal plug he calls the SuperPlug. It is exactly that. A threaded plug with a 1/4" drive welded to it. When changing oil on the K1600, the inner plug is a 5mm with only 3mm of depth in the head. Strong possibility of stripping out the head or dropping the plug in the sump. There are "fingers" in the lower sump to guide it out if it falls off the Allen key, but it depends on where the plug falls off. Too far up and the fingers will guide it into the sump. The lower sump drain hole is only slightly larger diameter than that of the plug. Get the BMW plug out one time, replace with RL's SuperPlug, no more anxiety when draining engine oil.
 
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