Anyone know what size the hole is for the rear oil galley plugs (the screw in ones) in a '65 401? I want to get the right tool to remove them. In addition, how does one remove the oil galley plug in the the last lifter bore? I have already remove the one in the back of the plug so I can see the one in the lifter bore. Can I just work thru the hole in the back of the block and push it thru into the lifter bore? Thanks
No,,, KD,,, that plug is just a welch plug,,, I just remove all the lifters and then pull the front plug and then run a long rod inside the galley and bump the plug out toward the back of the engine....I like to tap the galleys to a pipe fitting and install screw in plugs....
The size of the screw in plugs are 3/8ths. pipe. Those screw in plugs can be a real problem to come out because they are soooooo tight. In the process the ends get rounded off. !st. take an old extension & grind/file the end to be EXACTLY the size you need before you try removing them. I've seen many many methods for removing them including drilling & re-tapping. Can you say HOURS!!!!!! Over the years I have come up with a method that works so well when it comes time to remove those plugs you can almost take them out with your fingers. You take a candle, wax. Next you heat the block with a propane torch or oxy./act. & heat the block enough for the wax to melt. There is no fear of cracking or anything such. You are NOT using enough heat to turn things "Red", just enough to be able to melt the wax. Once you have melted the wax over the plug walk away for a few hours to let the block cool & give the wax time to "Wick" it's way down the threads. Now your ready to remove. If it doesn't work the 1st. time is probably because the area wasn't hot enough & the wax wasn't able to find it's way all the way down the threads. Just heat again. This time a little longer. I have the correct, shallow plugs in stock which also can be used where the freeze/push in plugs go. Tom T.
The candle wax method worked well for me too! Instead of an old extension, I used a bolt, ground the end down to fit in the plug, Then a socket on the head of the bolt.
Yeah, an old bolt works also. But, what I've found if they are still really tight the bolt will likely twist or mess up the recess in the plug. The reason I would use an old extension, they are harder to begin with. The plugs I supply have a 5/16ths. Allen hex instead of a square. Tom T.
There was a time in my life when I removed screw-in pipe thread plugs from Diesel engines. The plugs had a female square wrenching provision. They were not only tight, but chemically locked in place. The LAST thing I'd use is an old extension. They're weak where the spring-loaded socket retainer ball is located, due to the drilled 'n' peened hole. The depth of the wrenching surface in the plug is shallow enough that the socket retainer ball is above the plug, all the torque is taken below the drilling for the ball. Newbies in my department wouldn't take my advice, and most of them twisted the tip off of at least one extension in the learning curve. Grinding a bolt to fit would work, especially if you start with a hardened bolt--Grade 8 for example--and you're skilled at using a grinding wheel to make useful stuff instead of merely creating loads of sparks. I just bought the proper tools from the Mac and Snap-On dealer. Except for the smallest size (3/16 square) I preferred the Snap-On because they were stronger than the MAC offerings--I twisted off a few MAC sockets. The 3/16 Mac was superior to what Snap-On offered because it used a hardened bit unlike the other MAC sockets, and the bit was shaped better than the Snap-On so it didn't round the corners of the pipe plug. The 3/16 Snap-On was REALLY GOOD at changing a square wrenching surface into a rounded wrenching surface. I think a 3/16 Robertson bit in a Craftsman holder would be the functional equivalent of the MAC tool. The 3/16 may--or may not--have Buick applications, but it's exactly the right tool to pull the oil gallery plugs on a Mark IV BBC--the tiny ones down by the pan rail. http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item...8&group_ID=259&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog
Thanks all for the advice. I actually removed them this morning before coming back to this thread. My method was some heat from a propane torch and a little PB blaster. Wait overnight for everything to soak in. This morning I grinded a 3/8 to 1/2 adaptor down to fit the plug (my breaker bar is 1/2 which is why I used an adaptor). The plugs came right out no problems. Last step will be removing cam bearings and the block will be completely bare.
