[jimwooten69]

Where are the Oil Gallery Plug holes located on the front of the engine?

I am reassembling my 1996 460 and have found a mystery hole behind the Timing Gear Cover. It's a 3/8" threaded hole that goes at least an inch deep. It's on the 1,2,3,4 side of the engine and close to the crank gear. This engine was a sludged up mess when I bought it and took it apart so I don't remember taking anything out of a hole behind the cover. There's two other holes on the front that are the same size but they are outside the Cover so I just figured they were mounting holes but maybe not.

Could these be oil gallery plug holes? Did the machine shop forget to put the plugs back in the front of the engine? If so where can I get new ones?

I added a picture to help. This isn't my engine (I stole the picture from another post) but look at the red circles. The one with the red arrow pointing to it is the one that is behind the timing cover and the main one I'm concerned with. I really appreciate all the help on this guys.

Jim

 

[David Cole]

Both holes on the sides of the cam need plugs. The lower holes are just for mounting the timing cover. For the upper holes, the one on the passenger side takes a special tapered plug. Take a look at this thread with pics. Paul Kane explains it well.

http://www.460ford.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139162&highlight=tapered+++plug

 

[jimwooten69]

Thanks David. That answers whether or not it's an oil gallery plug that I wasn't aware of. I thought there were only 2 and Haynes manual said only 2 but need to make sure. So what in the world is it? I just can't figure it out. I spoke to a mechanic at our local Ford Dealer and he doesn't know what it is either. I know the rest of the holes are for mounting the timing gear cover but this one is actually inside the cover and the gasket has a hole for it but there isn't a hole for it in the timing cover. What the heck????? I'm just concerned that if I don't figure out what it is and put it all together then I could possibly have to pull it all back out. I really need to get this truck back on the road. The machine shop said the usual response "If there was something in there when we got it we would have put it back."

The biggest mystery is there isn't a hole in the timing cover for this hole and there isn't enough clearance inside the cover to actually mount something in there. I looked at the Haynes manual and no luck. I wonder if Chilton's will have a better look at it. I guess I'll get a flashlight and a wire and see if it goes anywhere. I did put a bolt in it last night and it is at least an inch deep which is maybe putting it close to a water jacket???????? Who knows.

 

[crittersf1]

Timing cover alignment dowels go where the RED circles are.

 

[jimwooten69]

What the heck is a timing cover alignment dowel? There aren't any alignment dowels in the timing cover. And why would the holes be threaded if they were for dowels?

 

[Paul Kane]

Your attached picture is of a D9TE-AB cylinder block. The additional holes circled in red are found on the D9TE-AB cylinder block only and are for the commercial application of the D9TE-AB cylinder block (F700, F800, etc). Those holes do not apply to your passenger car applicable combination, so forget about them.

The yellow arrows point to the front of the lifter gallery and those are Ford J-thread. Almost always (but not always), both front lifter galleries require the tapered nose front gallery plugs. The rear plugs (gallery exits at the rear of the cylinder block) use the 3/8 NPT.

Paul

 

[jimwooten69]

Paul,

The holes that are circled in red are on my block. When you say to forget about them, are you saying just don't worry about their presence or are you saying don't worry about them because they're not there? Just wondering. A mechanic I spoke to today told me that it was a generic hole put there so the block would be prepped for something like a crank position sensor. I guess I'll take a flashlight and wire to it and see if there is any kind of opening inside the hole and if not then I'll put a bolt in it and forget about it.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[95lightiningguy]

What Paul is saying is that those holes are not anything to be worried about because they do nothing in your application, ergo, dont worry about them. Hope this helps.