Enlarging FE Main Bearing Oil Holes

[blykins]

Thanks again....I'll do some reading and see if I can get a gameplan going.

[Rory428]

Originally posted by mickmate


Hey Brent let me know if they all work. The other one I was talking about was the galley plug behind the distributor. I guess most people either leave it in and don't clean that galley or remove it and clean it out but leave the galley oozing precious engine blood. SR recommends a plug with an 0.030" hole drilled in it to really help out dizzy gears and cam lubing without losing system effectiveness. I can get a couple of digital pics of mine if that will help. Stay on it and let us know how it works.

The plug behind the distributor is only used on the hydraulic lifter engines. If you have a soild lifter block, or have plugged the hyd. lifter galleries for use with a solid or roller cam, there is no oil there anyhow. The oil splash/misting & oil runoff seems to be adequate for lubricating the distributor & timing chain. In my opinion, drilling a hole in the plug behind the distributor will cause an internal oil leak, which should result in lower oil pressure, as well as a potential over abundance of oil in the timing cover, possibly contributing to a greater risk of an oil leak.

[Michael C Henry]

You would be addvised not to leave too large a hole that doesn't align with the hole in the bearing. It wiil have a tendency to try to hydraulic up the lower bearing and then squirt out between the block saddle and bearing. If the oil isn't between the crank and bearing' it does nothing.There are more tricks like using a top bearing half that has a groove , cross drill the main journals on the crank so it is picking up pressurized oil from either hole not waiting for the crank to rotate around again. Be sure to chamfer the hole openings in the crank in line wtih it's rotation. don't get carried away side to side. Your trying at this point to get as much oil to the rod bearings. Replace any sheet metal plugs with screwed in pipe plugs. The plug behind the cam timing gear Top oil gallery should have a small hole to belch out any trapped air quickly and drool oil on the timing set.If your converting a pre 63 block to a later cam and bolt on cam retainer plate retainer be carefull not to block the oil to the lower distributor. We used to get a drill and gouge out the threads to one side of the bolt hole after a few first few threads to hole . So oil would run beside the 3/8" bolt. I saw a whole care off the ground trying to remove a distributor that had galled its't self inplace.

[mickmate]

Hey Brent, how are you making out? I was wondering if you are using hydraulic or solid lifters. Also if you are using the grooved centre cam bearing or if the cam has a groove.
Cheers Nick

[blykins]

Hey Nick...

Just got back from my honeymoon.....still catching up on posts.

I'm planning to use a solid lifter cam...so I'll have to do the lifter galley mods...

The pictures you sent were really helpful....thanks a lot!

As for cam bearings.....I have no clue. I haven't ordered the bearings yet...

[mickmate]

The honeymoon is over, back to your project. Congrats BTW. Check your cam to see if the bearing is grooved, that will decide on bearings and alot of other details. Are you still using the Windsor or are we talking FE here?
Cheers Nick

[blykins]

I have a stroked Windsor in the car now....

Planning the build on the FE.

Don't have the cam, looking at a Comp Cams solid flat tappet cam. 248 degrees, .605" lift.

I thought only S/O engines had grooved cams?

[mickmate]

Correct, and they don't have the oil groove behind the bearing in the block. Keep at it, let me know when you run out of reading material on it.

[SCOBRAC]

I have a 1963 427 which had it's mains enlarged back in the day, it was a common practice especially among center oilers in the 70's I bought the thing recently and it has 10k miles on it and was running a Melling M57HV oil pump. It got 65-68 pounds of oil pressure at cold start up but when it was hot it would drop to 18 at idle, in gear it's an automatic.

I installed a M57HP (high pressure) pump and I now get 100 cold at start up and 25 at idle in gear. Now 25 is fine. 18 was probably ok. It is hard to watch it drop from cruising speed to idle though.

I wouldn't do it if I were building an engine.