Does someone have a good method of removing the oil galley plugs.I've done it a couple ways but most are a pain.There must be a easier way.

 

Using tig welder build a mound of weld on the ball large enough to grab w/ vise grip pliers. Attach vise grip and wiggle ball out while hot. Vise grip pulls heat out of ball while welding heat expands crank.

If you arc over to crank, grind that spot back using a rotary stone before tapping.

 

Thats pretty much how I do it but I use some dykes to grab onto the weld and kinda rock it out instead of the vise grips. I always tap the holes to 1/16" pipe afterwards to.

 

with the honda cranks, its hard to pull the ***** out pass the peened area, because the tig doesn't shrink the ball enough. i find it to be easier to just grind away most of the peened over area with a small round rotary stone. then tig a piece of welding rod to the ball, using either vise grips or dykes to grab the rod to pull it out. cut the rod off the removed ball and reuse until all the ***** are out. i'll use a hand grinder to clean up the area afterwards and tap for 1/16" pipe. if your killing taps, either ream the hole size with a 1/16" npt ream or drill the hole out to about 85% of the tap size.

 

Just remember to tell your customer to tighten the allen bolts

 

When I had my crank straightened at Storm Crankshaft, the owner used a plasma cutter to chop them right out. He does many Honda cranks a day like that. Instead of threading in npt allen plugs he gave me some tapered aluminum plugs that you hammer into the holes and then peen the edges. As you hammer them in the aluminum actually deforms to fill the gaps of the hole and wedges itself in there. As an extra precaution you then peen the edges of the hole with a chisel. It was cheaper and simpler to do it this way and is holding up great. Its an option if you don't want to cut threads for the npt plugs.

 

Thanks guys.I'll give the tig a try.I've been grinding them out and it's a pain.

 

Newbie here.. Why do we need to remove the oil galley plugs and then replace it back with the allen plug??

Any advantages with these replacement and what is oil galleys plugs for?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by chris2000 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Newbie here.. Why do we need to remove the oil galley plugs and then replace it back with the allen plug??

Any advantages with these replacement and what is oil galleys plugs for?</TD></TR></TABLE>

so you can clean them. they supply oil to the bearings and if any machine work is performed to the crankshaft you want to make sure they are CLEAN. because the last thing you want is metal shavings, etc in there when you start up your engine.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by lohatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

so you can clean them. they supply oil to the bearings and if any machine work is performed to the crankshaft you want to make sure they are CLEAN. because the last thing you want is metal shavings, etc in there when you start up your engine.</TD></TR></TABLE>

But if we replace them with an allen plug how is the oil going to flow through them?

 

if you looked at a crank you would understand why they are there. they drill the passages at the factory and the end of them needs to be plugged. the oil comes from the mains and goes to the rods. so a diagonal passage needs to be drilled and then plugged at the end.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by lohatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if you looked at a crank you would understand why they are there. they drill the passages at the factory and the end of them needs to be plugged. the oil comes from the mains and goes to the rods. so a diagonal passage needs to be drilled and then plugged at the end.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Understand.. I always thought the oil was picked up from the crank ends and allow more oil to flow through the round galley plugs into the mains and rods.

I got it all wrong. Thanks guys.. Just learn another thing.

 

I have this done to every crank that passes through my hands. When I first saw how much sludge and crap gets trapped behing those...

 

Usually there is alot. On the crank I have in my motor now-which came from a 100,000 mile motor that appeared to have been poorly maintained--I was actually surprised at how little crap came out. A lot of times though, the sludge buildup is so thick and hard that if you removed the plugs and didn't put any plug back to seal it back up, the slugde which has solidified by this point will seal the crank!! Sometimes the sludge has to be drilled out because its so hard.