DUB

I thought to tap the iron too, but the front cover was what was brought up...



I do see why it'd be better...but why is "there is a good chance of leak becuase now the passage is dead headed.."



Maybe using sealer along with a gasket (for that particular hole).



anybody care to chime in that has done this mod on the cover side? any leaks?

Sesshoumaru

what I did was slide the shaft back in where the block off plate is.



the end will prevent it from going all the way in.



alot faster than removing the whole front cover and should do the same thing as before.

DUB

size 5 with .80 pitch...came with momo shift ****

9BASE3

Awesome thread! Thanks for the heads up Carson!

ColinRX7

I don't want to get metal shavings in the path from tapping the iron when the motor is still together..



Is there no way around a leak like that if you just tap the cover?

mazdaspeed7

We talked about this before.



I tapped the front cover to keep metal shavings out of the oil system. The motor was already assembled. You can wash out the front cover, its a lot harder to flush the oil passages inside the block.



You *must* use a good, hardening gasket maker to prevent leaks. I also squeezed some imto the hole inside the block when putting the front cover on. Let it harden before running the engine. Hylomar will leak, as will any other non or semi-hardening sealant. Get some good silicone RTV and you should be fine.

ColinRX7

Ahh yes my mistake.



Sorry Adam I missed this statement. That's what I will do then, works out good for me since I will be assembling the motor and it will have a few days of gasket-setting time before the motor is even run.



Thanks.

scathcart

EEP! Did you use your drill to tap with?

Banzai will be letting out a shrill scream when he sees this.

setzep

Well I'm going to do a 180 here and stir the pot



I would not block the hole, if you look the block already has a orifice built into it to restrict the oil flow. The MOP shaft doesn't block off the hole so I don't see why you should either. If you look at the shaft it's turned down right where the oil passage is, so it's not blocking off the oil from the factory. Also isn't this how the oil pump chain get's it's lubrication? It looks like the hole in the cover at the shaft points right towards the chain.



Can someone prove me wrong?



Mine, I left in the shaft to allow the oil to still squirt at the oil pump chain but I did take off the gear.

mazdaspeed7

I spun 3 brand new front main bearings within 12k miles with the shaft removed and not blocking that hole. Hole blocked, 20K miles, not the slightest bit of abnormal wear on the front bearing. One of those times pieces of the bearing got into the trust washer and took that out, and I ended up havign to replace the stat gear, all the thrust washers, and all of the thrust plates.