I decided to make a minor addition to Murbella’s new short block that I saw in an engine building video from JBugs of all places.
So in the short block they build, they use a non-stock oil pick-up filter and slightly lower oil sump plate. I see no reason for this change, but the stud changes made gave me an idea to do now for future-proofing something I often have run into in the past, especially engines with a lot of miles.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve had gone to change oil and had a stud pull out with the acorn nut and that nut not come off, even with heat. I mean, we are talking small pieces, small threads, and things very easy to damage if torqued too much and so forth.
So as he does in the video, I’m going to replace 5 of the oil plate studs with slightly longer ones, bringing them up into the case and then putting a nut on them to ensure they cannot come out. Now’s the time to do it with 2 case halves open, and this will future proof one of my annoying pet peeves.
I even had that horrible problem with the 2019 new build’s oil stud, especially the sump one, on a case that was sealed.
This can’t hurt anything, and I may just look back in the future (if the damn motor lasts as long as I hope it does) when I’m changing oil and not unscrewing studs!