While preparing to mate the 3rd piece of the case, I was comparing the gasket to case halves. I noticed a threaded opening that the gasket would cover. I thought it was odd, and maybe I had the wrong gasket.
Enter my education on oil galley plugs. Thanks to a poster on the 356 register forum, I learned that cases had plugs press fit from the factory and flush to the case. For our case, the OE press-in aluminum plugs were removed prior to case reconditioning / line-bore, then drilled and tapped for pipe-plugs. This was necessary for proper and thorough cleaning of the oil-galleys My machinist had even supplied the pipe plugs.
The plugs have tapered pipe thread and the holes are tapped with matching tapered threads. The plugs wedge in, and in theory are self sealing. A light smear of teflon (aka PTFE) paste before installing was recommended.
There were six in our case (bad joke intended)
- 2 x behind the camshaft gear
- 1 top left main case half, facing third piece
- 1 top left main case half, facing up
- 1 in side of third piece
- 1 behind flywheel.
Unfortunately, two of the plugs are behind the camshaft gear and I had already assembled the main case halves. Luckily I was able to remove the camshaft gear to get to them. Gear puller to the rescue! Otherwise I would have needed to crack the case.
