Do Fumoto Drain Plugs remove all oil?
 

basically what the title says.
I've been doing research on the valve, but I keep getting mixed reviews. Some people claim it's the best thing ever. Some people say it leaves a bit of the old oil in the pan due to it sticking into the pan a little.

My question is for anyone that owns one. Have you ever released the valve to drain the oil, and then remove the plug? Did any additional oil drop out?

I'm all for easier oil changes (mainly to avoid dropping the drain plug in the oil) but if it's not 100% the same functionality as the regular plug. I'll just stick with the oem plug.

The laws of physics/geometry say that there will be a little bit of oil left, but not enough to matter.

Think of it this way, even with the regular drain plug there is still going to be some oil coating the walls of the pan and other engine parts. By the time you've added a fresh 5.5L of oil, it's not going to matter.

I understand that, but I'm just curious if anyone has ever removed the plug after draining the oil using the plug.

So you can sleep better at night, the stock Forester plug vs Fumoto:

http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulle...alve-image.jpg

Honestly, just don't think about it. You're better off monitoring your oil levels regularly than worrying about every last drop.

-alex

basically what the title says.
I've been doing research on the drain plug, but I keep getting mixed reviews. Some people claim it's the best thing ever. Some people say it leaves a bit of the old oil in the pan due to it sticking into the pan a little.

My question is for anyone that owns one. Have you ever removed the drain plug to drain the oil, and then removed the pan? Did any additional oil drop out?

I'm all for easier oil changes (mainly to avoid dropping the drain pan and replacing the gasket every time) but if it's not 100% the same functionality as removing the pan. I'll just stick with removing the pan and cleaning every last bit of oil out with brakleen and shop rags.

You remove the oil pan and wipe it out every time you do an oil change? What about residual oil in the engine block?

Read the OP, then read my post. I'm pointing out the absurdity of worrying about every last drop of used oil in the motor.

This is just an anecdote, but you know how automakers changed up the recommended oil change intervals in the late 90's / early 00's? It took a TON of durability testing to do that. Supposedly during that testing, GM engineers figured out that at highway speeds, the typical LS1/LS6 ate enough oil through blowby that they could top it up with mobil1 and swap out filters every now and again, and basically run it indefinitely without actually changing the oil because they were putting in a fresh quart every few thousand miles.

With that in mind, a tablespoon or so of used oil trapped against the body of the fumoto valve probably isn't going to blow your car up.

Thank you sir, thats exactly what i was looking for.

If you want to thank me, just use Google next time.

I used Google and took me 5 seconds to find this picture.

-alex

I talked to the folks at Fumoto and they said that they would be happy to send owners of the FR-S and extra washer which would lower the plug but would still provide suffient threads to hold the plug. Maybe this is an option

Just did my first oil change with the Fumoto valve installed. Filling it up with 5.4L as recommended in the manual put me at the perfect level on the dipstick.

If there is any residual oil left in the pan that can't clear the edge of the valve, it is so little that it's insane to be worrying about it.

This is what I do, although I actually have a total of three blue Fumoto washers. I've had the same Fumoto and washers since 2002 putting 12k miles on a WRX and then 140k miles on my Forester XT. I take it off every few changes to drain the oil completely because it makes me feel better. :)

Dennis

I have this valve and can attest to it being the best thing ever :p. I'll be changing oil pans in a few days (oil return line) so I'll take a picture of the inside and how much it sticks in. Regardless that extra ounce of oil isn't going to blow something up. You can't really get all of the oil out anyway, there's always drops here and there.

Mine does because i cut the threads down by all most half.
Measured threads in pan and cut valve to match.