Anybody ever heard of drilling holes in the front galley plugs to oil the timing chain & the thrust surface of the cam??

I read it in a book today....I am just wondering if it would reduce the flow to the lifters..

here's a link about camshaft oilers and drilling the hole in the front of the block http://www.off-road.com/chevy/reviews/bbc_oiler/

Thats a cool link, my short block is already assembled so I dont want to go through all that. But this book says to drill out the galley plugs, I mean even if it hit the timing gear it would splash down to the thrust surface, wouldn't it??

As long as it didn't kill the oil flow through the lifters, I think it would be cheep---make that free insurance that the thrust surface & chain gets some oil...Or am I just nuts graemlins/clonk.gif

Yup, I do it to every motor I build. I use about a #70 drill bit.

Cheap insurance.

With the timing gear spinning at however many RPMs, the oil will pretty reliably find its way to the outer edge of the gear, I suspect.... in a hurry no less.

Originally posted by ssal396:
Thats a cool link, my short block is already assembled so I dont want to go through all that. But this book says to drill out the galley plugs, I mean even if it hit the timing gear it would splash down to the thrust surface, wouldn't it??

As long as it didn't kill the oil flow through the lifters, I think it would be cheep---make that free insurance that the thrust surface & chain gets some oil...Or am I just nuts graemlins/clonk.gif No, just drilling the oil galleys will not work like drilling into the oil galley under the thrust.
GM drilled the lifter galley plugs to assure all air was expelled from the lifters not to oil the chain.
The oil will get thrown away from the center not towards it. ;)

I do agree tht it is an excellent idea to drill a very small hole in the thrust surface from the front oil galley as it puts pressurized oil behind the thrust area of the gear.