Trevor (Trev29) was gracious enough to pull an AW70 oil pan for me from a car he's parting out. I was surprised when I picked it up from him though that it had no drain plug.

Is there any particular disadvantage to not having a drain plug?:

- isn't it helpful to drain any sediment from the pan before doing a full flush (at the rad fittings), or would this really make any difference, since the drain hole is raised above the bottom of the pan anyway? (And would the sediment flow out even if the drain hole was flush with the bottom?)

- removing the pan without a drain hole must be pretty messy (although I gather dropping the pan and cleaning the screen isn't advised any more anyway). Then again, I thought I'd only have the pan off once, but here I go on my third attempt to get a proper pan seal.

What years had no drain plug? Are they all a compatible fit?