[DeTomaso] Plugs, holes and distributors

[Kirby Schrader]

Further to the thread about Pantera fall down and go boom, since I was
putting a 377 together, I decided that I was going to kill some of the ills
of the Cleveland oiling song and dance.

I had the lifter bores bushed at great expense since the roller lifters I
had chosen were less than .050" from uncovering the oil galley.
I am going to install an Accusump, which I've heard called a poor man's dry
sump...

And once Mike Drew had his distributor gear go south, one of the things I
added to the list was to drill the infamous .030" hole in the plug to add
some oil to the distributor gear area. Can't hurt, as some say.

This, it turns out, drilling that hole is not that easy as some have alluded
to...

First, Dave Londry is correct.
 The oil galley plug is NOT an NPT thread.
It is NOT an NPTF thread.
It is as he said...  5/8" -18 and they are about 1/2" long.

I tried drilling a .031" hole through the existing steel plug with my drill
press and managed to break or twist off 5 high speed steel bits.
As the machine shop I have used said when I called him, 'Those plugs are
hard as hell.'
It runs out they are most likely rolled steel and that creates a cold worked
hard surface which is tough to drill through.

I tried ordering brass plugs, but they are all NPT.

I could not find a plug that fit other than the steel ones you get when you
buy a new freeze plug kit. The freeze plugs are brass, but the oil galley
plugs are all steel. At least, everywhere I looked.

I didn't have access to the laser that Dave did...

So, I ended up ordering some carbide .029" drill bits and wonder of
wonders... after breaking my center punch twice (I said those plugs are
hard!) and adding a drop of oil, I managed to get a hole drilled through the
steel plugs.

I know... as Mike Trusty said... 'The right tool for the job.'

So I have my small hole and the engine is going together.

FWIW,
Kirby