Hey all,

I'm taking out one of my oil galley plugs to install an auxiliary oil pressure gauge, and the darn plug is rounded out. First off, does anyone know what size that plug is? If you know the thread size, and allen key size that'd be great. What would be awesome is if someone knows what kind of torx but might work to get it free. From what I'm reading the only good way to remove a rounded hex plug is to either weld on a bolt (not an option for me, no welder) or pound in a torx bit. 

Can you try another plug that may be looser? otherwise you are in for work.



  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

I could either T off my oil pressure sending unit or use another galley port. The one I'm after is in the prime location for my copper line, so I'd like to try. Here's a shot of the plug itself. As you can see there is some meat left sticking out. Thankfully

I have had luck with Easy Out Screw Extractors in the past on things like broken intake bolts. Don't know if that would be the right tool for this job though. With so much of the plug sticking out, if you could hit it with some heat from a torch and then, while hot, melt some bees wax on the threads you might be able to twist it the rest of the way out with a pair of vise grips. Just an idea. Good luck. Dave.

my solution is remove oil presure sender. then get a proper med. presure hose made up and mount the oil p. swith on the iner fender with a t and run the lin to gauge from there.if you attach a coper ine direct to the engine it will eventually brake.  get a t with mounting tab as you want the oil sender grounded. takeng the plug you showed out has to much risk,could lead to engine removal. even with proper alen key they ar tough,plus metric key is close but stripes out(did that with block out). 

Heat and vise grips may get it out.  One problem with stuck threaded things is that vise grips will in all probability strip the threads off first then you can get a good grip on it.  Usually there isn't much room to work when the engine is in the car.

A possible solution for removal is to weld a nut on the plug so you can use a conventional wrench on it.  If your can get a welder up there.

think the size of the plugs are 1/4 pipe


54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

FWIW. An old time mechanic told me that repeated heating was the secret. Even with only a propane torch, repeated heat cool cycles cause the corrosion, rust or anything, to break down and release. Even when I had oxy/act torches, I was always afraid of melting something. If you've got the time, try 5 or 6 times, letting it fully cool. Last time I did this was on a 5/8 bolt froze up in a fromt spindle. We twisted off a 1/2 drive bar (with a long pipe over it) and broke an impact socket. Two days on and off heating, it came loose. Maybe that gives you a shot with the vice grips.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

The key to my suggestion is the wax. The heat will allow it to wick into the threads and will work as a lubricant. I was shown this trick on frozen galley plugs by a seventy year old gentleman around 1990, or so. Of course the engine he was working on was out of the car and the allen head not stripped out. Maybe Ted, or one of the other engine builders here, has a recommendation as how to proceed. Again good luck with it. Dave.

 They come out fairly easy if heated up first. The wax sounds like a good idea. I would clean the oil and grease off before heating.to avoid a fire.

Yes, heat it up to red with big enough flame and quickly couple of times and then hammer the plug head a little to make allen head little tighter and then hammer correct size allen head to it and it should come loose easily. Easy to do when engine is off, little harder when enine is in .

 Seppo from Järvenpää, Finland
www.hollowheads.net (just click the hole in the head to proceed)