Fumoto oil drain valve

[rawlus®]

has anyone investigated the possibility of using a fumoto oil drain valve instead of the OEM bolt and crush washer? i've used the fumoto application successfully with my lifted jeep and it makes draining oil behind the underbody skidplate pretty effective, i have the fumoto with the nipple end so i can attach a hose to reach beyond the skidplate, this keeps oil from draining all over the skidplate top side.

[jwight]

The smart bolt is more than a bolt; the oil drain plug has a mesh filter attached to it, reportedly for the oil pickup. Changing to another bolt or drain loses that filter.

[rawlus®]

the oil pickup is integral to the drain plug? that's weird.

[timhood]

Originally Posted by jwight

The smart bolt is more than a bolt; the oil drain plug has a mesh filter attached to it, reportedly for the oil pickup. Changing to another bolt or drain loses that filter.

Lucy! You've got some esplaining to do!

I've not changed my oil yet, so I haven't seen the drain plug yet. But I don't understand why a filter would be attached to the plug and how this would help the pickup. Shouldn't the filter be attached to the end of the pickup?

[Old smart]

It appears like the screen on the drain plug is a debris trap so that anything roaming around with the free oil (and not in the filter) is concentrated in the vicinity of the plug and will come out with the screen of flush out when the plug is pulled.

[Karl Roth]

Most oil pumps have a pickup screen that isn't odd in itself. Clever or should I say smart, is the ability to easily clean this at each oil service it insurure full oil flow. A more conventional design requires removal of the oil pan "sump" and oil pump pickup, hours of labor. Seems to make removing the plug once a year or so no big deal anymore. An other challange with the drain petcock systems is that they can form a dam for particulates that have fallen out of suspension in the oil and settled to the bottom of the sump.

[Old smart]

There is a good depiction here of where the screen fits into the oiling system, and how it works: www.smart.com

[rawlus®]

i don't know about the screen - never had a problem with the valve-style design on my jeep which is 170K miles on it and is run quite hard off-road. if it doesn't work in this application, so be it. was just a suggestion.

[RVGRINGO]

Do all you 451 owners know that the 450s with the Mercedes Benz engine don't even have oil drain plugs?

[Smart Enuf]

Fumoto doesn't list smart as a compatible application:

Engin Oil Drain Valve - Fumoto Engineering

Of course, this list was last updated in April 2005, so who knows?