[SCOBRAC]

Thanks Rick,

I thought my snap ring drama was long forgotten. Indeed I had one of the access plugs pop out of my crank. My plug was in my pan or it would have been a very curious leak. It's possible yours is simply partially unseated. I am looking for the thread on the problem but it seems to be missing.

I didn't have any particular symptoms prior and I "got on it" one day, not near 7,000 but my oil pressure dropped from 75-85 to about 35 at speed. I drove it home (probably a bad idea) I kept the pressure up by keeping the rpm's up over 1500. The pressure looked like it would have crashed under 1500.

Long story short I found a .875" freeze plug in my pan. It looked like the guy prepping the crank used .750" internal snap rings instread of the .875" units. I ended up replacing several plugs which looked like they had moved slightly and all the internal snap rings. All of this was done with simple hand tools and a brass mallet, snap ring pliers. The plugs are just 7/8" freeze plugs and the clips I wound up getting at Home Depot. There are better spiral lock type clips out there but of all the OEM style clips I looked at Home Depot had the strongest. Total cost for parts was like $7. and a couple of oil pan gaskets.

Good Luck!