Oil Galley plugs at Camshaft

Needswork said

I took my own advice on my suggestion to YR. I'm working on my own stroker 340 and was doing some test fitting of parts and such. I went ahead and bolted on my oil pump, pan, added some oil and spun the oil pump with a drill. This is with NO galley plugs, just the cam plate (4 bolts). With 5-30 oil and 50 psi on the mechanical gauge I hooked up, there was only a small amount of oil escaping behind the cam plate. It didn't make a big mess like I expected (or remembered from the past). Instead, it just dribbles down the front of the block. My guess is maybe 1 cup of oil a minute. Other setups might be different. A plate with only 3 bolts might "leak" more. Just my experience. I'm still going to install the plugs.

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Take a quick look at your cam plate (not trying to convince you to not use the plugs...it doesn't matter to me either way but I'm glad you did your own test) and see if your plate has a relief cut away at one of the galleries.

I forget for sure which gallery has the relief but IIRC it's the drivers side. That relief was put in there so oil would leak past the plate and down onto that cheese ball little metal tab that bolted to the bottom right hole in the plate (looking from the front of the engine).

Not every engine got those plates but I've found almost all of the aftermarket plates have the relief. It's possible that's where that oil is coming from.

Just an FYI.


Edit: I just looked at a picture of a plate with that relief. It's on the drivers side, and the cheese ball metal tab bolts to the lower left hole and has a finger that goes into the lower right mounting hole. Like I said, not all the plates have that relief, but most every aftermarket plate I've seen had that.