Oil Galley plugs at Camshaft

[yellow rose]

I assume you meant 'front gallery' plugs? Now that is interesting... made me go look at my unmolested '68 273 block.... no plugs in the front. So just the plate in stock form.

One thing I did not realize is how close behind the front of the block that the oil passages to/from the #1 main bearing sit in the galleries; it is less than 1/2". So you had better not drive any such front gallery plugs in too deep. I wonder how often THAT has happened.....

It happens. A lot. And whoever had the threaded plugs is screwed. If he screws those big nasty pigs in to flush, he'll cover the feed hole to the drivers side lifters.

And the holes are now to big to hold the freeze plugs.

So he can just run the plate like I always do.

Also, if he has the plate with the cut out in it, I'd look for a good used OE plate that doesn't have the cut out.

 

[nm9stheham]

Or drill the threading the gallery holes out to the next larger size plug that gets past the major thread diameter. I don't think there is anything in that area to run into and it won't hurt the oil flow to/from the #1 main bearing to have that end of the gallery opened up a bit.. both gallery diameters are stepped down in size to towards the center of the block anyway.

 

[oldkimmer]

This is a 71 340. Kim

 

[yellow rose]

Or drill the threading the gallery holes out to the next larger size plug that gets past the major thread diameter. I don't think there is anything in that area to run into and it won't hurt the oil flow to/from the #1 main bearing to have that end of the gallery opened up a bit.. both gallery diameters are stepped down in size to towards the center of the block anyway.

Yep, that would work. Just make the hole the next size up that you can get a soft plug for and do that.

 

[nm9stheham]

I just wanted to add to this thread with info on a threaded plug that would be the best for this issue. I needed a certain size plug for my Opel oil gallery, and the local machine shop gave me a Ford 'J' plug. It is a shallow plug with a taper on the back so that the threads have less depth. The Ford Cleveland and 429/460 blocks have the same issue: a side oil passage off of one the main galleries that is very close behind the surface.

These Ford 'J' plugs have a thread OD of about .622" halfway down the threading, and a thread pitch of 18 TPI. I am not sure what the matching tap thread is; it may be a short taper, maybe a 5/8" bottoming tap. The hole in both my 360 and 273 blocks is around .570-.575" ID, and looks like it would be right to use such a tapped hole and plug. You'd have to tap a bit at a time to make sure yo did nto tap too deep.

You can see these plugs in the pix in the 1st post of this thread:
Oil Galley Plugs