Fumoto Qwikvalve review

[Rich Z]

I installed these Qwikvalves on all three of the Corvettes back in early 2013, and wrote about them then. But in case someone doesn't know or remember what I am talking about, I'll cut and paste from that post here:

Yeah. Just brought the camera over from the garage today, so I've got pictures of the valve that I took yesterday.









The model number I got was F107S. That's the one with the short nipple, which seems to fit just fine. They also make a model without a nipple that would work, but the long nipple would likely be a problem.

You can even put a piece of hose on the short nipple when you open the valve for the oil draining process, if you wanted to. I put a wire wrap around the top of the valve lever as an extra safety precaution in case the spring would ever break inside the valve. Never heard of that happening, but I know how my luck runs sometimes.

The company selling these is called "QwikValve". They cost $27 each when I bought them.

So I've been using them enough now that I think I can make a fairly knowledgeable review with a qualified opinion of them.

In short, I don't really like them all that much. Yeah, they prevent wear and tear on the threads for the oil pan drain plug, and yeah it is convenient to not have to try to remember what size wrench you need to remove that plug. But quite honestly, I think if you took your car to the local Jiffy Lube with one of these things installed, they just might turn you away. Why? Well, I started changing my oil on the blue C5Z 2 hours ago, and the oil is still S-L-O-W-L-Y draining. Maybe the thicker oil is part of the problem, but honestly it wasn't any better with the other cars with thinner oil. So beware as these commercial oil change shops might want to charge you by the hour for that oil change. If they will want to tie up one of their bays for a couple of hours at all. Maybe having the oil heated to full temp would make it flow better, but probably not by all that much. So if you go that route and they will accept the challenge, you may want to seriously consider taking a book to read.

So yeah, the theory sounds nice, but the restriction of the smaller hole in that valve will cause a seriously reduced flow during the oil change. If you change your own oil and time is not of the essence in that endeavor, sure, have at it. Open up the valve and then go take a nap or something. But with all things considered, I don't think I would buy them if I knew then what I know now about them.

YMMV, of course.

Well, took a break to eat a rootbeer float and write this up while it's on my mind. Guess I should go back to the garage and see if that oil has finally finished up draining. Hopefully I can get this oil change done in time to run out to the Lake Jackson Sonic car cruise-in tomorrow evening.

[Cor66Vette]

Good read, thanks for the review.

[Rich Z]

Well, it took close to 3 hours to drain the oil pan of the 6.5 quarts of oil. Minus what I had poured directly into the new filter I installed, of course. I consider it as being "drained" when the old oil was just coming out as drops instead of a steady stream.

That's just ridiculous.

[85vette]

I think I'll take your advice and stick with the factory plug. I change my own oil(or one of my sons does) 99% of the time, but for that odd time that I don't....well, those oil change places aren't going to take the time to drain it completely if it takes more than about three minutes. Time is money.

I've never stripped the pan bolts on anything I've ever owned but I have had to replace the brass washer on a few vehicles that were seeping.

[Benjamin]

did you remove the oil filler cap? sometimes using a smaller drain, if you remove the filler cap it will allow it to drain faster because the crankcase is now vented.

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

did you remove the oil filler cap? sometimes using a smaller drain, if you remove the filler cap it will allow it to drain faster because the crankcase is now vented.

No I did not. But since both of the valve covers are vented to a catch can with a breather (air filter), I'm guessing it's really not all that air tight.



I guess it COULD make a difference, but I'm guessing that it wouldn't really be that much of a difference.

[Benjamin]

I guess probably not..... Was just a thought...

[Rich Z]

I do appreciate the offer of ideas to try to help, though.

I guess it's going to depend on how I choose to look at this. On one hand it's aggravating to have to wait three hours for the oil to drain from the crankcase, but on the other hand, heck, I'm retired and it's not like I'm ever going to be in a hurry to change the oil myself.

I may try to tilt the car slightly forward on the lift by adjusting the lift pads next time I change the oil to see if it helps slightly.

Or I guess I could just open the valve before going to bed at night and finish up in the morning.

On another related topic, lately when I've drained the catch can attached to my PCV system, there is a good amount of clear fluid coming out of it. Looks like water to me. Condensation? Then a thick almost chocolate milkshake looking fluid which I presume is floating on top of the clear liquid within the catch can. So I guess the catch can is doing it's job.

I've checked that other catch can shown in the photo above by pulling off the filter to look inside. Aaron Scott didn't leave me any way to use the drain valve on it to drain accumulated fluids. So far I haven't seen any fluid accumulated in there, but from what I can see visually, the inside is obviously oil coated from the fumes coming from the valve covers.

[Rich Z]

Well I decided to change the oil today on the C5Z since it has been almost 9 months since the last one. Only put a bit over 1,000 miles on the car since that last oil change back in July.

So I opened the valve on the Fumoto. Went out to water some plants. Took a walk looking at the new blooms coming out on the fruit trees. Went and ate a sandwich. Checked emails. Swept the garage floor. Went out to water more plants. After a couple of hours, the thin stream of oil was exactly the same as it was when I first opened the valve. Screw this. I pulled out the valve and a nice healthy stream of oil came pouring out. One thing that is worth mentioning too about this thing, is that the bottom edge of the hole is higher up than the threaded hole of the oil pan. So you can figure on a good amount of old oil remaining in the roil pan that just CAN'T drain because of the higher oil drain hole lip. Like I said, screw this! I'm getting older and time is getting more precious, I guess. Just found one of my original magnetic tip drain plugs and put that back in place. That Fumoto valve seemed like a good idea at the time, but heck, I'm going to be pulling them out of all of the cars when I change the oil on them again.

[85vette]

It stands to reason also that any trash lying in the bottom of your oil pan will be more likely to come out if the oil is flowing faster.