Distributor Oil Pump Drive Plug

[Ghettoracer]

You know how they have that plug on the top side that always leaks at the o-ring? Can't you be able to fashion a freeze plug in there and weld it flush and not worry about an oil leak? Seems kind dumb to put a plug with an o-ring that will deteriorate over time.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

i am able to fix this in about an hour... (the leak) and no not a permanent welded new cap. but yeah why not make a steel one and weld the bastard on??

[Ghettoracer]

I think I might give this a shot and see if I can weld up that hole. If I do this I will make sure to take a few pics.

[pocket-rocket]

The reason it's a removable plug with an o-ring is because it runs off your intermediate shaft (kind of like a cam, but it has no lobes) and it's used to turn your oil pump. I wouldn't recommend welding it shut unless you want to buy another engine if you ever want to do a rebuild.

[GTP091]

The reason it's a removable plug with an o-ring is because it runs off your intermediate shaft (kind of like a cam, but it has no lobes) and it's used to turn your oil pump. I wouldn't recommend welding it shut unless you want to buy another engine if you ever want to do a rebuild.

I concur on this point. It's also necessary to have access to your oil pump drive gear from the top side. If you ever have oil pump problems you need to get at it from the distributor hole as well as from underneath with the oil pan off. I had a mechanic tell me a long time ago it would e very stupid to permanently seal this off.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

well, thats why we dont weld it shut i guess.
i can get a ring of gasket material (covered in gasket maker) under it and this is after cleaning it out a little too! in about an hour! no lies!!!

[60dgrzbelow0]

You know how they have that plug on the top side that always leaks at the o-ring? Can't you be able to fashion a freeze plug in there and weld it flush and not worry about an oil leak? Seems kind dumb to put a plug with an o-ring that will deteriorate over time.

Welding a dynamic component to the block may not be such a good idea for too many reasons to mention. The oil leaking problem has an interesting history though that may prove useful in what might really be going wrong. After the late 1980's and early 1990's problems that occurred with the original "Black O-Ring" hardening, cracking and leaking, GM opted to use the "Brown" O-Ring made of PTFE (Poly-Tetra-Flouro-Ethylene) AKA "TEFLON". The engineers tested this material also for use with the pressure inner coil style seals for the main bearing journal seals. In both cases, the only problem they observed was "...the PTFE does tend to 'wander' a bit and leak on the main bearing seals after 175,000 miles, due to the effects of gravity as opposed to either chemical or thermal attacks on the seal itself." In both applications, these work exceedingly well and durably resist oil and gas degradation and hardening/cracking breakdowns. It is very likely that is you are having serious oil leaks around the sealing areas of the Oil Pump Drive, then your OP Drive may have had a "Black" O-Ring installed incorrectly (originally designed for the 2.8L engines and later abandoned as hopeless and a major failure in GM's choice of materials). I have heard that these "Black" O-Rings are making there way back onto the repair markets and if used in lieu of the "Brown" O-Rings...the leaking problem rears its ugly head once again. For more images and information, please visit my photo-bucket. There are several albums other than this specific one on my site that show the various 60* part images and part numbers if this information is necessary:

http://s557.photobucket.com/albums/ss19/60dgrzbelow0/ANEWV6OILPUMPRIMINGTOOL/

[pocket-rocket]

And a brown one only runs $2-3 at the dealer.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

o ring?? no... paper gasket with gasket maker on it... ill bet on that alot longer.

[pocket-rocket]

Well when I have a top end off I do it both ways... New brown o-ring and a gasket, but I use black silicone. I have yet to have one leak this way.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

i did mine about a month ago. so i cant make any promises. but i did it without taking the head off, without taking either intake off...

[60dgrzbelow0]

Well when I have a top end off I do it both ways... New brown o-ring and a gasket, but I use black silicone. I have yet to have one leak this way.

Just Food for Thought but...

The only problem I can see that might arise with using an additional sealing gasket under the lower lip surface area of the Oil pump Drive and the upper mating surface of the engine block is that if the gasket material is thick enough, it might change the relational depth of the mating areas between the helical drive gear on the OPD and the helical gear teeth on the camshaft moving them out of their optimum mating positions.

Also, this additional height of a raised OPD might allow the hex drive shaft mating inside the oil pump, which is ordinarily fairly snug once the OPD is pushed deep inside the block hole and the holding clamp is torqued down to specs, to have too much vertical play. Under the changing torque dynamics of increasing/decreasing RPM, this extra play can cause the mating gears to allow the OPD to walk up and down and perhaps cause the Hex Drive Shaft to chatter and vibrate up and down as well. Any additional mechanical vibrations in this 'stack' of components can only invite added wear and part failure of the gear teeth and invite damage to both the Oil Pump Drive and the Oil Pump as well.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

guess you better tighten that shit down real good.

the explanation does present a valid point... i guess we will have to see. the only noise my engine makes is when i first start it up i have some sticky lifters, but a minute later and the rattling goes away... oh and i can REALLY hear my injectors clicking too! lol if i have the cover off for them and start it it sounds pretty loud. but other than that, so far no noise or oil leaks.

[pocket-rocket]

I will be sure to pull the one out of my 91 when I part it out to have a look since it's been that way for years (gasket sandwiched between silicone) and reved up to over 7k many many many times that way. I doubt anything came of it though since a gasket isn't very thick and silicone spreads even thinner in this case.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

half assed fix, or proper fix.... key word is fix. lol