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Registered User 4'10
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Crankshaft oil galleys cleaning
Searched all over the place and can't find anything on this (probably buried in one of the hundreds of hits I got on "crankcase", "oil", etc..
![]() Anyone no a reasonable way for a DIY guy to clean out the oil galleys (passages?) in the crankshaft. I had it worked on, and just poking a Q-tip in the larger holes, I'm getting a lot of grit. I can soak it in Purple Power, or solvent, or whatever, but I'd hope there was some more positive way of doing it. It's a 2.0L out of a '69 911E. thanks, cheers, jt
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jt - '69 911E, PCA-RMR '75-'82; Current Other: '16 BMW 328i, '18 Subaru Forester, '09 Kawi Concours 14, '85 VW Westfalia, C172, C152; Previous Notables: '89 Goldwing (RIP), '80 Suzuki 850, '64 Ducati 250, '64 Bug (wish I'd known about that #3 exhaust valve...), '59 Austin-Healey BN100-6, '59 Impala 2-door hard-top (cool!). '49 Cushman motor scooter, Grumman AA5A & AA5B |
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Registered
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You HAVE to remove the plugs in the shaft.
Depending on the crank...some are screw-in...some are push-in. But whatever you find...get them out and flush using a cleaner (Varsol, etc) from both directions on every hole...several times. Them blow clear with CLEAN air...and install new push-in...or reuse screw-in plugs. Have fun. Bob
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Bob Hutson |
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Air Medal or two
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: cross roads
Posts: 14,102
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Everything I have ever read said- DONT. ( Bruce Anderson for one )
Unless you have the ways and means of proper installation of plugs If you had a engine failure, you may have to "send" it to a proper vendor.
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D troop 3/5 Air Cav,( Bastard CAV) and 162 Assult Helicopter Co- (Vultures) South of Saigon, U Minh Forest, Delta, and all parts in between |
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Registered User 4'10
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I'm happy to see that we've got the usual 50/50 consensus
![]() Yeah, I see now that Wayne in his book says to just flush the passages with cans of brake or carb cleaner real good, then blow them out. I'd rather not mess with any plugs if I can get away with it. But, I did spin the #2 rod bearing, and #1 looks like it lost a little of it's rod bearing also (altho it never spun). The #2 rod big end bearing surface is scratched but measures in spec diameter and oval-wise (as best I can measure them). And the #2 crank journal was worn down to the extent that it had to be welded & ground. So, I've been hunting for any junk/bearing material throughout the whole tear down. But the only obvious stuff I found was in the bottom of the case - several flakes of bearing material big enuf I guess that the sump strainer/screen blocked it from getting sucked back up into the system. Haven't cut open the oil filter yet. Oil cooler seems clear. Thanks for all comments, cheers
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jt - '69 911E, PCA-RMR '75-'82; Current Other: '16 BMW 328i, '18 Subaru Forester, '09 Kawi Concours 14, '85 VW Westfalia, C172, C152; Previous Notables: '89 Goldwing (RIP), '80 Suzuki 850, '64 Ducati 250, '64 Bug (wish I'd known about that #3 exhaust valve...), '59 Austin-Healey BN100-6, '59 Impala 2-door hard-top (cool!). '49 Cushman motor scooter, Grumman AA5A & AA5B |
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Registered
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,109
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When I had my crank cross drilled they installed threaded plugs which allow you to clean the crank with ease. Without this it would be very hard to remove debris from the many dead ends in the crank. That said, i'm sure many people have found out ways to do this.
Last edited by 3literpwr; 06-09-2014 at 10:54 AM.. |
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Schleprock
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Frankfort IL USA
Posts: 16,639
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Given the description of your bearing failure and the work you had done on the crank (welding and grinding), I think it would be VERY risky to not remove the crank plugs and clean the internal passages. When a crank is ground (or even just polished) the grit that gets in the passages is hard to get out. Once you put oil into the crank via actual oil pressure, it can self-flush itself and then distribute that grit to elsewhere in the engine. Not good.
Threaded plugs are a real nice trick. David at Marine Crankshaft did that for my crank work. Makes cleaning it a breeze and you just use basic medium strength threadlocker to hold them in place. No need to get overkill and use red/permanent that requires high heat to remove the plugs. Take it from a guy like who had a catastrophic oil system failure, you don't want to go there risking shrapnel that takes out bearings and other engine parts. The collateral damage is huge.
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Kevin L '86 Carrera "Larry" |
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Air Medal or two
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: cross roads
Posts: 14,102
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Truly, I would think whom ever did your crank work would have cleaned it out for you in manor that will not bite back latter.
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D troop 3/5 Air Cav,( Bastard CAV) and 162 Assult Helicopter Co- (Vultures) South of Saigon, U Minh Forest, Delta, and all parts in between |
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Schleprock
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Frankfort IL USA
Posts: 16,639
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You'd like to think so. But I asked Marine about it when servicing mine and they were very clear that they take no responsibility for cleaning whatsoever due to liability- that being a customer who blames their failure on alleged insufficient cleaning.
That said, Marine still did a fantastic job cleaning the exterior of resulting crud from the machine work to facilitate protection of the crank with a heavy bath of rust preventative treatment. They left the real cleaning up to me. Some of the set screw plugs were a bit stubborn to come out due to the left over debris from crank work- be it from the actual journal work or from the drilling I don't know. Crank was cross-drilled & #4 main journal was grooved, along with the tapping of the existing plug holes plus some additional plugs were added in the front pulley "snout" and the flywheel mounting flange (where a dowel pin is used for the flywheel). These new plugs are especially good for flushing the ends of the crank. Point of mentioning that is maybe since I was given the removable plug treatment, they feel its much easier for the customers to do their own cleaning? Whereas if they didn't remove the plugs, maybe they'd do some more cleaning due to the added difficulty of cleaning the crank with the plugs in place? Dunno. All I know is it's a really risky proposition to leave the plugs in place on a crank that had any sort of work done on it and one that had bearing failure. Just my inexperienced opinion. So take that for what it's worth.
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Kevin L '86 Carrera "Larry" |
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Air Medal or two
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: cross roads
Posts: 14,102
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All am in this area is a product of what i have read. Based on that like said,- remove and thread for pipe plugs.
Pressed in plugs are for some specialty shops if you want to send it out.
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D troop 3/5 Air Cav,( Bastard CAV) and 162 Assult Helicopter Co- (Vultures) South of Saigon, U Minh Forest, Delta, and all parts in between |
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Registered
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Gulf Coast FL
Posts: 1,485
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I used long thin brushes where I could on the crank, plus screw it into the flywheel and stand it upright. Spray carb cleaner in all the holes and it will run out the lower holes carrying the crud with it
Make sure you disassemble and clean the IMS too.... ![]() Last edited by eastbay; 06-10-2014 at 07:32 PM.. |
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Registered
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Annapolis MD
Posts: 1,020
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I also had my crank done by David @ Marine. I asked about the cleaning and got the same response. I used about 4 cans of brake clean to clean my gallerys before sealing up the hole with the set screws. I was hesitant to put anything in the gallerys to scrub encase something got left behind or broke off inside. I realized when cleaning the engine gallerys that most of the brushes would break off when rodding out the gallery similar to the way a wire wheel does. I sprayed until they came out clean then sprayed some more for good measure. Im confident they are clean. Crank is presently in my engine.
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Schleprock
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Frankfort IL USA
Posts: 16,639
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These nylon brushes from Goodson are nice & stiff and don't come apart easily like some metal brushes do
GOODSON : Parts Cleaning : Brushes and Wire Wheels
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Kevin L '86 Carrera "Larry" |
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