S52 block oil galley plug removal

[jph]

Just received all my parts back from the machine shop and would like to give the block a thorough cleaning before beginning assembly of everything. I want to be able to scrub down into the oil galleys but I'm not sure how to go about removing the front and rear press-fit plugs on the block. I have searched everywhere and there is ZERO info out there on this. Can anyone who has experience here chime in and help a brother out?

[RainRider]

Are you talking the soft plugs? AKA freeze plugs? Pics would help.

[jph]

Are you talking the soft plugs? AKA freeze plugs?

No, these are located on the front and rear of the block. One on each end. Probably about 7/16" diameter and they appear to be pressed into the block. The front one is located under the timing chain cover just left of the water pump opening on the block and the rear is about 5" down from the block's deck and on the left side of the block if you're looking at it from the back.

[RainRider]

I've never been there with the block stripped down.

[jph]

So I used a center punch and made a pilot for the drill bit, drilled through the plug and threaded in a self-tapping screw. Going to attempt to pull it out. Wish me luck. I'll update this thread with how it goes, but that plug seems awful thick so we'll see.

[jph]

So the self-tapping screw was a failure. Too flimsy for the job. Ended up drilling a larger hole and tapping a 6mm x 1.0 thread and using a bolt and spacer as a puller to suck the plug out of the block. Once I got the front done I ran a long pipe through the oil galley to the other side of the black and whacked it with a hammer a few times to pop the rear plug out of the back of the block.

I highly recommend to anyone having a machine shop doing any work on your block to have them pull these oil galley plugs and give you the block back without them installed. The onus is on the person doing final assembly to ensure the block is 100% clean and free of internal contaminants. This requires a deep cleaning of the block and this process cannot be performed correctly with these plugs installed. Just my $.02.