The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Soft plugs in the main oil gallery in 235s

Hi all,
just thought I would share a recent experience i had putting a 235 together for a friend. I had the machine work done at a shop that I have had great luck with in the past. They magg'd the block for cracks, bored the cylinders .030 turned the crank .010, .010 and replaced the cam bearings. When I picked up the bare block and crank I noticed they installed all the soft plugs. I assembled the reciprocating assembly in the block, installed the heads and dropped the entire assembly in, primed the oil system and fired the engine off to life. Everything broke in nicely. Checking for leaks afterward I found oil drips off the back of the bell housing at the back of the engine. My first thought was oh no a leaky rear main, but I used the best neoprene rear main and have never had one of those leak, this was the fifth engine assembly I have done with this rear main seal. I traced it up to the soft plug in the main oil gallery which is of all places underneath the mounting flange of the bell housing. It is practically impossible to remove the clutch housing with the engine in its saddle so out the engine came.

The evidence was clear it was a leaky soft plug. The fix will be me tapping the gallery with a 3/8 pipe tap and installing a flush pipe plug. I have got it figured out how I'm going to do it without getting metal shavings in the oil gallery. The oil passage to the rear main bearing is about 1/2" away. Stay tuned I will post more pictures tomorrow.

The point I'm trying to make is if you are going to go through a 216 or 235 tap these oil galleries and pipe plug them to eliminate any possibility of a oil leak. My 261 I put together last year had tapped oil galleries from the factory, for some reason this 1956 car block did not.

Chow for now,

Steve