Thanks for the responses; it appears that I must continue.
What pics would you like? On the subject of “oil gallery plugs” I have posted finished cases, taps (cut & uncut) I am not a photographer but I will try!
Let’s get back. If you have followed the previous posts, you should now be able to fit a threaded plug into your oil gallery. Now all you have to do is repeat the process on each gallery plug, whether you chose to do only the four “essential” 3/8” plugs of all of them, the technique is the same.
But wait there’s more….
Had you forgotten the M12 tap?
If you look at the picture of the rear of my case, you will see I have installed three 3/8” plugs. The third “optional” plug is the one on the fuel pump side. Do you have a case that has the mechanical fuel pump fitted (or had been fitted with one) if you do, you will see that the case is fitted with a long brass bush through which the fuel pump drive shaft passes. This bush (I will take some pics of a couple of bushes I have removed over the weekend) passes right through the oil gallery and effectively blanks of the rear of the gallery. This means that there is little or no oil pressure acting on the rear of that plug and consequently little chance of problems occurring there. Most builders recommend you leave that one as is.
If you decide to remove the plug, you will see two things: firstly, you can clearly see the where the brass bush passes through the oil gallery (nice). Secondly it is blocking the hole where you intended to install to threaded plug and there is insufficient depth to properly thread the hole (believe me +-2 threads is all your going to get and thats not enough, not so nice
)
If you have already pulled the plug (as I did
) and tried to tap the little material you have to work with (like I did
) then at this stage you will throw your cases away (but I didn’t)
I reasoned that the problem was the brass bush. As I was not going to use the fuel pump at all the thing had become a huge liability, if I pushed it out I might be able to tap the 3/8” plug in further but all the bloody oil would shoot out of the oil gallery from the two holes left where the bush past the it.
MY solution (I’m quite proud of this one
)
First I push out the brass bush (an ordinary pin punch and a hammer works fine, punch the bush out from the cam shaft side, I don’t know why but they seem to come out easier then if you punch the out from the fuel pump side)
Now you will see there is plenty of material to properly tap the thread for the 3/8” plug. However, you now have two new problems, the two holes left by the brass bush. This is where the M12 tap comes in, take your M12 tap, and tap into the case from both the camshaft side and the fuel pump side. Note do not tap all the way through, use the vernier to thread only about half way down each side, you want the grub screw to bite into the case before it pops out into the oil gallery or you will have screwed up
!
Clean out your newly taped M12 threads with carb cleaner or the suchlike, apply a liberal amount of locktite to the treads and then tightly screw in the 12mm grub screws (if you are going to clean or hot tank the cases I would wait until that’s done and install all the plugs and grub screws at the same time). Job done
PS if you have a case that has no provision for a fuel pump (some are like this) all this is not necessary, go ahead, pull the factory plug, and continue as with all the other plugs
Oh, why bother if it’s not necessary? Well why not, but for me these are old engines which have seen hard use and often been neglected, I felt that I wanted to be sure that the engine was completely cleaned out with no pockets of sludge left behind.
Well that it, I hope I have helped in some small way. Now ask away…… I'm Ready
Cheers