M.O.R.E. Oil Pan Skid Plate: how do I drain the oil with this thing on?

[kkarnage]

Thanks, I have the same destroyer rock rails and was wondering if there would be interference. Something hitting the cat would be way less upsetting than the oil pan or transmission so I probably won't worry about it. Thanks for all the info, I was looking at these and the ASFIR skids and both are on sale this weekend. This helped me decide the get the MORE.

Glad to be of assistance!

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[fredrok]

So I just finished installing the M.O.R.E. Oil Pan Skid Plate (JLOPSP392) on my 2022 392 XR. There is a hole in it to get a spanner in to get the sump plug out, but I can’t seem to see a way to actually deal with the oil that’s going to come streaming out of the hole once the plug is out. There is nowhere for it to drain out of the skid plate itself, and nothing to channel the oil to any specific place either.

I’m clearly missing something somewhere. Has anyone else installed one of these, and done a subsequent oil change? I’m going to be less than impressed if I have to remove it to do an oil change given

the amount of effort involved in getting it fitted in the first place. That’s just not practical at all.

You aren't missing anything. They designed this skid around the aluminum pan version where the drain plug is parallel with the ground. Perfect access in that case. They need to revise their R&D for the steel pan.

 

[Dyolfknip74]

Get a Valvomax. Comes with a hose that reaches past the hole.

 

[JJ_WA]

Yeah, that’s what I suspected would happen. I have a Fumoto on the way and will figure out a way to get it installed, since I’d like to get an oil change in before the weather turns cold here. I’m going to go get myself one of those flexible funnel things and try and divert at least some of the flow. And may just pack the space between the skid and the body parts it’s protecting with wads of shop towel or something else absorbent to catch what I can’t get the funnel to divert.

I have to do that (pack with paper shop towels) on my '02 Dakota to get the filter off. It's always annoyed me to have to do that or face wiping oil off for days after changing the filter.

Although a pain, it might be worth while to drop that skid pan to change the oil and install the Fumoto valve before buttoning up the pan again.

 

[Usethis83]

You aren't missing anything. They designed this skid around the aluminum pan version where the drain plug is parallel with the ground. Perfect access in that case. They need to revise their R&D for the steel pan.

This. I have the aluminum pan and this skid and it is a straight shot down.

 

[AFD]

I have the MORE on my 3.6l and the first oil change drained all over the inside of the skid plate. I ended up installing a fumoto drain valve and use a clear hose to drain my oil.

Do you just leave the clear hose attached all the time and tucked up and out of the way, or are you able to easily re-attach it each time through the access hole?

 

[JJ_WA]

Do you just leave the clear hose attached all the time and tucked up and out of the way, or are you able to easily re-attach it each time through the access hole?

YMMV, but I have direct access to the valve on my Cherokee, so I remove it each time. For this application, it looks like it would be easy enough to leave the hose on and rolled up inside the pan. You can unroll it when you're ready to drain the oil.

 

[John VonJeep]

Stupid design. They should provide a removable access panel… like 8x8”… that you can remove to allow the oil to drain. Their failure to adapt their design to the new oil pan is so lazy.

 

[kkarnage]

Just to wrap up this thread...

I mailed MORE as well, but never got a response. They did send me a product review request earlier this week, so I'll go give them more feedback there in a bit.

What I ended up doing was just draining the oil at about 25% life remaining today using a small offset funnel which actually fitted in the gap just perfectly. It still messed on the inside of the skid plate, but wasn't too terrible in the end. I then installed a Fumoto valve (F106SX) and aligned the output at the hole in the skidpan. Did a test fit of the drain hose and it was super easy to get on and off.

I had toyed with the idea of seeing if I could swap the Fumoto in without changing the oil. Someone even suggested a shop vac sucking on the oil filler up top to potentially lose less oil. This was probably something I would have tried, except with the plate in place, access to the drain is already more tricky than it would be without it, and it just didn't seem like a good idea the more I looked at it.

 

[SCARd4Life]

Get a Valvomax. Comes with a hose that reaches past the hole.

My 6th Valvomax went on my wife's 2022 392. Have had a great experience with these. Looks like it would work with this skid plate. There is some concern about leaving oil due to the threads protruding a small distance into the pan. Less of a concern on the 392 steel pan given the angle, but thought it was worth mentioning.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B077Z9GQCB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

My 4th and 5th went on my 2022 TRX (oil cooler and oil pan).

 

[entropy]

My 6th Valvomax went on my wife's 2022 392. Have had a great experience with these. Looks like it would work with this skid plate. There is some concern about leaving oil due to the threads protruding a small distance into the pan. Less of a concern on the 392 steel pan given the angle, but thought it was worth mentioning.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B077Z9GQCB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

My 4th and 5th went on my 2022 TRX (oil cooler and oil pan).

I use a valvomax with my skid plate. No issues. Makes it all painless and super simple.

 

[hazards280]

I purchased the MORE Off-Road Aluminum skid plate a couple months back. Since install I haven't needed to do an oil change, but I'll likely swap to the valve for cleaner oil changes in the future.

I was quite impressed with the quality of the welds, and overall quality of the finish of the product. As mentioned earlier, it is a very strong skid that was a fairly easy install. The instructions are not very good, but if you have common sense, and know what righty tighty lefty loosey is you'll be fine.

 

[ScottW511]

I ordered my oil pan/tranny skid as well as the transfer case skid during their labor day sale. They were delivered this week and I got them installed today.

As previously stated these skids are very beefy and well made. Ya the oil drain hole could be moved about and inch or so rearward for the new oil pan but I'll put in a fumoto at my next oil change.

Like kkarnage I have LOD destroyer rock rails, all I had to do to install the driver side cat skid was cut a notch in the skid where it sits against the frame to clear the LOD mount. Won't compromise strength at all. Just adding this information in case anyone else was curious about how it would mount.

The skids take a bit of massaging to get all the bolt holes lined up, I ended up using a dremel on one hole to widen it and on 2 of the slide washers I took a grinder to the outer edge. As the bolt was tightened the edge of the slide washer would push against the bend in the plate and take away the clearance needed to get a socket inside the washer. I'm sure this has to do with vehicle tolerances, it seemed like my oil pan skid just needed to be 1/8" or so more rearward and I wouldn't have had any alignment issues.

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