302, I was changing a oil pan gasket and while cleaning the last of the oil in the pan I found a 1/2" plug non threaded that I believe belongs in the oil galleys behind the cam plate. Now the question is if the plug is out would there be enough oil pressure that motor would not show any signs of low oil pressure. There is no knocking or any unusual sounds. No oil pressure gauge just idiot light and do not know if it works. It appears that the motor has been rebuilt at one time by appearance of the pistons from the bottom side as they look new, pan was super clean with no signs of anything in it like you usually find in a motor with 105,000 miles on it, cant see timing chain sprocket to tell if it is original but not a roller set either, oil pan gasket had some sort of gasket material holding it to the block. Is there anything I can do to check it to avoid having to tear down the front end of motor to give me piece of mind, I know now is the time to do it but would like to avoid it if possible. Every time I get that far into a motor it ends up getting a new cam and the whole gamut of goodies. Oops meant oil pan gasket, made correction
I had that happen on a rebuilt motor 25 years ago. It was one of the galley plugs behind the cam plate. It would show oil pressure, but the top end was not getting any oil. I pulled a valve cover and there was no oil up there....even when running.
I was going to suggest a remote mechanical oil pressure gauge, but first you might want to take a look under a valve cover as Craig suggests.
I would think that it should have gave some signs that oil pressure was low, it runs great with no noises like lifters collapsed or top end noise. For piece of mind I am going to tear it down and have a look I can tell timing chain has some slack so now is the time to change it out and radiator has a small leaks so I was going to change it as well and that is half the battle. What I expect to see when I tear it down is somebody when they rebuilt it and the plug came out and had to tear it down and replace the plug and just left the plug in pan, if I would have had any idea that there was an issue I would have taken the valve covers off and checked for oiling. A gauge set up is on the way and that would have told me. Oh well its just time and money and being a Maverick your a gambler anyhow.
That is a common issue with those plugs. Do yourself a favor and get a 1/4-18 NPT tap and a couple of plugs to thread in to avoid any future issues. This is what Ford should have done as they did on several others.
Yeah Allan my research has told me that and those are my plans, guess we will find out if they had already done that when we tear it down
If you were not getting a sufficient amount of oil up -top you wud have had some kind of noises at the very least. Since you're tearing into it, won't be any doubt about oiling.
Plug was missing, top one passengers side. They were staked and glued in but apparently not good enough. Glad I took the incentive to tear it apart. Off to buy a tap and some plugs.
Good to hear Mike, hope all goes well, wonder how long it may have been out, i was told the motor was rebuilt before we got it. Good Luck.
Everything is nice and clean so I knew it had been rebuilt but if you told me that I didnt remember it. Also found that the woodruff key that keeps the crankshaft sprocket on was worn really bad allowing for variable timing. Could not find one at any of the parts stores here, could get some from Ford but had to buy 6 at $30.00 plus freight. All the parts stores didnt even know what a woodruff key was. So now I am on the hunt for one of them
Dont know if I could make it fit as it is rounded at the bottom and would take some considerable grinding, I knew something was wrong when I was able to pull the harmonic balancer off by hand keyway in it looks good though. Got one coming for $5.00
Oil galley holes are tapped and screw in plugs installed just hope I kept any metal from getting in motor, greased tap up really good and only went a little ways then backed it out and cleaned it up and ran a magnet in the hole then did the same procedure a couple more times then loctite the plugs in they aint coming out again. Took the time to clean everything up and get a coat of paint on them and install gaskets with a little dab of black rtv. Now just waiting for the woodruff key to get here for reassembly. Going to use the Felpro one piece oil pan gasket with just a dab of rtv in the corners. Was hoping to have it done by Saturday because we are taking off to go salmon fishing on the Columbia river for 5 days but woodruff key wont be here until Tuesday and we are leaving Sunday, got an All Ford show at Woodburn Dragstrip I was hoping to have it ready for a few days later I will probably haul the 72 out and get some racing action with it as well if I can find a set of slicks I was going to buy a set but too broke to do that now.
Yeah I am sure if I was in a bigger city than 4,200 people with some actual stores I could have found one but the nearest city of any size is 80 miles away, but I wouldnt trade living here compared to there for anything
