Just an update on the Sure Drain. I changed my oil this weekend, and noticed there was a bit of leaking, as I either didn't tighten it down enough, or it loosened off a bit (I figure the hot/cold cycles may have necessitated the second tightening and now it won't loosen off) I didn't notice higher oil loss than before on this interval, so I probably only lost a few extra drops.
This system is very easy to use, and makes taking oil samples much less messy since the flow of oil isn't so fast.
The oil may not flow out as fast but this won't really increase the oil change time for most of us here. Unless you are the type that tries to rush your oil change as fast as you can, this system will still allow the same amount of oil to come out. Here is how I see it. With a normal drain plug, when you take it off, the oil flows very fast at first, it probably gets 80% of the oil out of there in the first 3 minutes. With the slower flow of the sure drain, it probably takes about 10min to reach that same point. But if you're the type to leave your oil draining for a half hour or more, by the time you've reached about the 20min mark, I figure the same amount of oil will have drained out of each setup, since once the oil flow is down to the drips, the sure drain system isn't flowing any slower at this point anyways.
All in all I really love this setup, no more burnt hands, no more fishing the drain plug out of the old oil, and virtually no spillage when collecting the oil samples. I am impressed.
When I finished up, I cleaned the removable brass piece with brake cleaner to get rid of all the oil residue. On all oil samplings, I let the oil drain for one full minute to make sure no contaminents that might be left on the brass piece with the unit make it into the sample too.
I'm putting one of these on my wife's car in two weeks when I do her next oil change.
[ March 18, 2003, 09:59 AM: Message edited by: Patman ]