Oil Gallery Blanking Plugs

[Boosted Zed]

You may not want to know this if you recently had your motor rebuilt. If you have had an engine rebuilt recently did you have these removed when you had block bored, honed, decked then cleaned and then properly refitted? If you did not then it is like blowing into a bottle and impossible to clean the block properly, especially if bored and honed as small bits of metal filings will remain in the oil galleries. I was shocked to recently find that according to Nissan no one else in Australia seems to be buying them. We have been buying and replacing them for years with RB and VG engines when we rebuild them. They are not expensive but take more time to remove and refit them. No matter how much you clean a motor it will still have bits of metal go through it when you put oil in and run it and gets hot and eventually works it's way through the motor. The scarey bit is it can do damage before it makes it's way through to filter. If you are about to build a motor then make sure this simple yet very important little extra is done. Welsh plugs also should be changed too which for those that don't know they are the coolant block offs in the block. The oil gallery blanking plugs are same sort of thing only for oil and are in head and block.

[GTRgeoff]

Yep, mine were pulled and I had new ones provided by the machine shop so I could fit them myself.

[Boosted Zed]

Good to hear Geoff and I am wondering where they got them from? As it may be able to get non genuine ones but being so cheap from Nissan I wonder why anyone would, and needing to accurate size wise etc I wonder if theyare right?

[RPMGTR]

We tap the galleries and use threaded plugs..........easy to remove at next rebuild, and they aint ever coming out (RB's run decent oil pressure) unlike a pressed in plug could.

[Boosted Zed]

Hey Ben that sounds the go same as grub screwing the crank. I thought you would be on top of this one. The factory ones when lock tighted in won't come out by themselves even with higher pressure but doesn't hurt to over engineer them. You guys are the exception from what I have seen and heard though as many customers, workshops and machine shops don't bother removing them at all. One can check their receipt as long as it is detailed should have them itemised. Same as some customers have had their clutches changed but not spigot bushes which should be and not invoiced for them and then wonder why they develop a vibration. This is more rare but seen it a few times.

[carl h]

where exactly are these plugs located on the rb20?

[SteveL]

We tap the galleries and use threaded plugs.......

All the L-series performance builds I've done over the years have involved replacing the stock pressed plugs for threaded - can't see the point of not removing these and all other plugs before cleaning.

I'd note that the same 'rules' applies to heads, AFAIC, but I've found that some RB heads are a bitch to work on on this regard due to the use of ball bearings for plugs.

[GTRgeoff]

No idea what brand they provided, it was a solid interference fit plug though, and they did the full tap on the crank as well and just provided the plugs for me. I paid a bit extra to get the block fully prep cleaned for building as I didn't want to put all the crap into the drain as I cleaned it out. Worth $70 IMO. Probably wasted after the latest misadventure.

I don't see why this wouldn't be done as an automatic thing. This is just that bit of attention to detail that gets a rep going and customers in the door. Broken engines don't get return customers I feel.

Grubbing the plug is a good idea Ben. Again, attention to detail.

Carl the plug is at the front of the block, above the oilpump I think, or is it above the water pump?

[Boosted Zed]

We have only done 25 and 26's on the block were the oil filter housing attatchs, I know there are two and others in the block and heads can't remeber exactly where as my mechs do it not me. There are heaps in VG30's but won't mention those nuggets here though.

[SteveL]

As with L-series there are 2 main gallery oil plugs - one at the front of the block and one at the back. The attached photo shows the one at the front. The one at the rear is at a similar location (they blank the same drilling).