FJ60 Main oil gallery expansion/welch plug fix (the other one)

[ChaserFJ60]

This is for the rear main oil gallery expansion or Welch plug thats on the block of the FJ60, i think it was in 1985 that Toyota started doing NPT Hex plugs instead of these silly expansion plugs....

If your 2f engine is 1984 or older it will have this plug. Anyone who calls it a freeze plug is wrong, it does not retain water, it retains oil which does not freeze. I had to replace mine because the machine shop incorrectly installed the new one and my engine was pumping oil onto my exhaust, luckily it was the side that was sandwiched with the bell housing so i didn't loose all my oil. I couldn't find any in depth step by step fixes for this so here's mine.

If you need to remove your transmission here's a thread
How to change a clutch step by step with pictures + descriptions do this and remove the starter, clutch slave, and bell housing.

I also highly recommend these threads aswell for more info on this fix/issue

2F Cam plug Sanity check!

Hi All, So when i got my '40 it had a dodgy gearbox, so i replaced it, with a rebuilt along with the RMS, OPG, pushrod cover gasket, clutch etc, the whole shabang. All this was to solve a fairly constant oil leak. At the time i was pushed for time as i had to be out of the garage i was...

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Oil leak question near rear main (with Pics)

1983 FJ60 with 220k miles on it. I have only put a few hundred miles on my rig since i bought it in November of 2010. There has been several leaks and i am getting around to diagnosing the worst of the leaks. This one seems to be coming from near the interface of the trans/engine and it is...

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Heres all the extra special supplies i used.

the plug is PN# 052-06A from SOR.com

Anywho heres my leak

When the plug failed it literally just slid out. to remove it I drilled a small hole direct center and pressed a magnet against the plug to catch any metal shavings from falling into the oil pathways, then i visually checked for no foreign objects in the port. It is critical that nothing falls inside this gallery.

At this point i used brake cleaner to remove all the excess oil and placed some sealer along the rim of my new welch plug as well as some in the pocket of where the plug is going.

It is critical that the gasket maker you use for this plug drys hard, it cannot be a flexible gasket maker. no silicone. Type one gasket maker worked for me.

 

[ChaserFJ60]

I recommend buying 2 plugs, i messed up my first one up by punching in the center too far and thankfully had a backup...

On my 2nd round I got much better results.

When using the punch, Try to hit the center of the plug as few times as possible. Note you want the punch you use to flatten the welch plug to be as large as you can get to avoid pitting the plug, i believe theres also a special tool for this but my brass punch worked fine. You want the plug to be nearly flat but not completely, Its my understanding that you still want the plug to extrude outwards very slightly, IF the plug is punched in too much it will likely fail again. After I punched in the center nearly flat, i took my smaller punch and went 2 laps around the rim of the plug to ensure that the lip of the Welch is completely flat with its contact surface.

If you do this right you can call it complete and slap your engine back together, But im not one for doing jobs twice so a little bit of JBweld was added after the gasket sealant cured as extra assurance. before adding the jbweld i cleaned the surface with brake cleaner.

I couldn't find any info on what taps/plugs to use for a more reliable repair, but if you can tap and plug this hole then DO IT.
Hope this helps somebody out.

 

[John Staton]

so I am thinking this was a different welch plug when I had my problem. I was a newbie and thought it might be the oil galley plug I kept hearing about. I got that fixed later. Mine is an '83 and the welch plug that blew is located in front of the engine. The page that shows the best view of it is near the end of the thread. I had not had my truck very long when it blew and luckily it only ran a minute or so before I poked my head out the door and saw the oil on the ground. Where this one blew it sprayed oil into the fan and was all over the engine....was a mess.

Oil Galley Plug??? '83FJ60

Here’s a good shot from @CaptClose.... zoom in and it’s very obvious now.

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[ChaserFJ60]

so I am thinking this was a different welch plug when I had my problem. I was a newbie and thought it might be the oil galley plug I kept hearing about. I got that fixed later. Mine is an '83 and the welch plug that blew is located in front of the engine. The page that shows the best view of it is near the end of the thread. I had not had my truck very long when it blew and luckily it only ran a minute or so before I poked my head out the door and saw the oil on the ground. Where this one blew it sprayed oil into the fan and was all over the engine....was a mess.

Oil Galley Plug??? '83FJ60

Here’s a good shot from @CaptClose.... zoom in and it’s very obvious now.

forum.ih8mud.com

I wanna say its the same plug, theres one in the front and rear of the block. yours looks pretty gnarly, did they even punch it in??? and my front one is punched in way too far and im worried about it falling out, Luckily my aftermarket gauges come with a bright oil warning light but still I need to redo it before i dump oil everywhere.

 

[John Staton]

I had it done. I am thinking they used whatever worked without much experience on FJ60s. They do hot rods and classic cars and can do anything. Desmogged it and added a weber carb and it runs great, but still feel a bit uneasy about that plug....although it was over 2 years ago and no problems. Didnt know there was another one of these things in the back of the block.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

The shop added new plugs on my block but both are the hex threaded plugs. Mine an ‘87.

 

[ChaserFJ60]

The shop added new plugs on my block but both are the hex threaded plugs. Mine an ‘87.

I wanted to put those in but couldnt source a tap in time. I only had thanksgiving break to do it

 

[ChaserFJ60]

I had it done. I am thinking they used whatever worked without much experience on FJ60s. They do hot rods and classic cars and can do anything. Desmogged it and added a weber carb and it runs great, but still feel a bit uneasy about that plug....although it was over 2 years ago and no problems. Didnt know there was another one of these things in the back of the block.

I called the machine shop that put mine in to tell them what happend, the guy said some old chevys have them and have the problem of them falling out too and they thread in plugs as a fix... im kinda salty that he didnt reccommend that to me.
What i think is happening is the machinists do all the heavy hard work like the machining and the newby apprentices are left with the "simple tasks."

I think all fj60's should be installed with an oil level warning light. I dont suppose it would be hard to take an oil fluid level reader from an existing car/truck and install it in the fj60's... maybe even add an auto kill when the oil level gets too low (with an override of course)... im going to look into that actually

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

What size do you think it is? I could call the shop. I’ve got a 1/2” tap I used for my tcase and even I believe a 1” which I used for making a rain barrel. The guy at tractor supply laughed when I picked it up, “not many are looking for a tap that size!” I know you already did it but big ones can be sourced if you can wait a day.

 

[ChaserFJ60]

Couldnt get my caliper up to the port completely flush but i measuered a 16.9mm ID, hex plugs from the 3fe are like 20mm OD around i think

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

I’m clueless to what that converts to bit like I said I could call my shop to see if he remembers.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

@Onur probably knows the answer, if he’s interested in saying.