Thank you fellas. I will drain it and clean the plug again.

Oh look! Another little project to make me sit in a garage over the weekend!

 

I experienced something similar the other day while changing my oil. I didn't have any leaks, but the bolt was very loose. I'll definitely will be keeping an eye on it.

 

Not to offend , why not use teflon , just curious . I only use it because a friend of mine who's worked on bikes for many years helped me with my first oil change years ago when I was starting to do my own work .

Seems most of you are against it , your answer will be respected , so may not use it when I change my oil next week .

 

I use Teflon on pipe threads. The oil drain plug is not a pipe thread, it uses the O ring to seal. My primary uses a pipe thread for the drain. Pipe threads are tapered.
If using Teflon on a pipe thread, be sure to wrap it in the right/correct direction. Otherwise it isn’t any good.

 

Teflon tape is used to seal the threads.... The oil plug is sealed by the o-ring, not the threads...

IMHO..... There is no need for the redundancy of also sealing the threads, if you use a new o-ring each time. Probably doesn't hurt, but then you need to clean up the teflon tape each time you remove the plug.

Some of the primary drain plugs (like early twin cams) were NOT the shouldered drain plug with an o-ring, but rather a small pipe plug using a depth measurement rather than a torque spec... On those plugs (I have two bikes that use them) I use Loctite 465 or 565 thread sealant.

I used to religiously torque my drain plugs.... but sometimes it would seem that torque would distort or tear the o-ring... Now I just snug them up and let the o-ring do it's job...

 

Thanks guys , this makes perfect sense , recalling when I did my last oil change , I noticed that the plugs are straight , not tapered , with a " shoulder / seat " for the o-ring . When I do my oil change . I'll pass on the teflon and torque to spec , but will inspect the o-ring afterwards .

Appreciate the answer's guys !

 

keep an eye on the oring when installing the plug as it will sometimes **** a tad and you will see parts of the orange oring once snugged. if so, the oring is not seated correctly.

 

 

If the drain plug came loose after torquing, chances are the O ring was the wrong size.. Too big. Don't use tape or sealer on the plug,,, Same issue.. It won't allow the plug to seat.

 

I have had trouble in the past when draining the oil when bike was hot after a long ride. The O-ring for some reason won’t seat until the pan has cooled down.
It has squeezed out the side every time hot. But after I let it cool and install the o-ring it’s all good.