The plugs in the ends of the oil galleries are aluminum and the holes are
threaded. The only way I've found to remove them is to drill a series of
holes around the periphery of the plug, making sure that you don't nick the
threads in the block.
Replacing them is a chore. I've tried screwing straight socket head plugs
in, but of course those are not guaranteed to be leakproof, even with
thread sealant.
Until I find a better approach, I currently tap the holes with a 3/8" NPT
tap and screw in socket head pipe plugs. This is difficult because tapping
a tapered thread into these holes requires a very long wrench for leverage.
There is also the problem of creating chips which may very well go down
into the oil passages to the main bearings. I prevent this by stuffing the
holes with paper towel scraps and then carefully pulling them out and
blowing out the holes.
In addition to the difficulty of tapping the holes, the socket head plugs
don't usually screw far enough into the front of the block to make them
flush, so I carefully grind off the tops of those plugs so the front plate
goes on flat. The rear one can stick out a couple of threads without
interfering with the flywheel.
This is all a lot of work and although I do it to every block I'd be hard
pressed to defend the all this monkey business. It is necessary if you have
the block dipped in a caustic tank for cleaning, because the caustic melts
the aluminum. If you don't have the block "tanked", the old plugs are okay.
By the way, if anybody has a head "tanked", the big plug in the top can be
treated the same way, but the aluminum pushrod tubes in some heads will
actually disappear. If anybody does this, don't throw away that late model
head -- I have a shop that will replace them for a quite reasonable price.
At 12:43 PM 1/4/04 -0500, Amiddlesworth@netscape.net wrote:
>I'd like to run a brush trough the oil galleries in my TR3 engine (which
>is down to the bare block now). How do I get the "Welsch plugs" out? And
>what do I do to put a plug back in?
>
>John Middlesworth
>
uncle jack
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