Question

Two technicians are discussing removal of square-type oil gallery plugs. technician a says that you need to use an acetylene cutting torch and cut them out of the block. technician b says that you should only use the proper hardened steel tool to remove them. who is correct?

Answer 1

Practically speaking, both of them are correct. Technician A who uses an oxy-acetylene torch to remove oil galley plugs would spend more time than Technician B (assuming he uses a drill with appropriate drill bit size). Technician A would induce heat via the torch to expand the hole in the engine block. Doing this would allow the stubborn oil galley plugs slip out the hole easily. Adding paraffin wax at the other end would speed up the removal. Technician B should initially use a smaller size drill bit to provide a pilot hole then proceed with square head bit to detach the plug.