Should There Be A Drain Hole?

[Anonymous]

Greetings all. I have a 1980 GS550L. Is there supposed to be a drain hole in the oil filter cover, usually sealed with a bolt and gasket, but that can be removed for draining? I look at my bike's oil filter cover and there is an obvious place where it should be, and its expected presence seems to be generally confirmed by my Haynes and Clymer manuals. It's like the casting was made and everything was ready for a drain bolt, but the hole was never drilled through. Any opinions about whether this was on purpose (e.g., some engineer decided that spraying the exhaust or front tire with used oil was a bad idea) or do you think something else happened (like 50 of these came off the assembly line before someone discovered they didn't look right but used them anyway)? I can still drain oil from the bottom of my engine, it's just harder to get at and a drain bolt at the front of the bike seems more convenient. The oil cover looks like it is aluminum, and although it would be easy to drill out, could this be a bad idea and just making a new place for a leak to eventually happen? I'd appreciate any thoughts about whether this is something I should or should not attempt, and if so, pointers and suggestions to keep me from messing up would be appreciated.

[HiSPL]

I don't think that all of the oil would drain out if you just used that spot on the filter cover.

I don't know what the casting is there for either..... Oil temp sender? Oil cooler tap? Filter drain?

[Anonymous]

cover

Some models have the filter drain plug some dont, it is only to drain the filter and not the crank case, so leave it alone, mine didn't have it but I found one on ebay and I use it upside down so I can pump oil into it and prime the system, so I don't have to wait as long for oil pressure to build after an oil change if yout fast enough you can fill the filter and put it on before it soaks thru the paper and this to will save time for oil pressure to build up after a change

[saaz]

If it is there you can use it to drain the filter before removing the cover. Also, remember that the standard service intervals are for oil every 2500kms and filter every second time (at least on the GS1000) so it makes sense to drain all the old oil out without having the remove the filter cover.

[Anonymous]

Thank You

Wow, thanks for the responses. I hadn't even thought that it might be simply to facilitate oil filter draining but now that you all mention it <slapping forehead sound> <twice>. I had planned on still needing to finish draining out the bottom, unless I could figure out some way to stand the bike on its nose, but thought maybe reducing the head in the casing would help stop the gusher effect when first pulling the plug. Guess I'll just have to get quicker at that, like several other things. Again, thanks for the advice.