Oil system modification to big block

I have read in several build manuals about plugging the left (drivers side) lifter galley on a big block solid flat or solid roller engine for race only application. It is said to leave the left side lifters with splash oiling. Sounds workable to me. Does anyone here have any first hand experience to offer here? Not looking to shoot myself in the foot. All replies appreciated. Thanks, Bill

I can't believe more people don't do that mod. Keith Black's used to sell that plug but I forget who has them now. Sorry. Somebody younger will chime in.

You can either plug it and use splash oiling or plug it and then drill a small hole in the plug. Just depends on the type of lifter that you are going to use.

It takes a 19/32 freeze plug drove in drivers side rear of oil galley. Carefully drive it just past the oil pressure feed hole.

I am using a solid body Comp roller lifter, no push rod oiling.Did not drill a hole in expansion plug used as a block.Race only motor. Splash oiling is sufficient? Thanks Bill

I had to block off the left side oil galley only on a early Hemi ( 1965 or 1966 block, CRS) block when switching from a solid lifter cam and lifters to a solid roller lifter kit, one of the driver side lifters would expose the oil galley and make the oil pressure dance and fluctuate
I ended up having to drive in two small plugs, the first one work for awhile and then must have twisted enough to allow oil pressure up to that lifter hole
The second stay put and work from then on
I found out after that there are several brands of solid roller lifters for BB Mopars that have a skirt on the oil galley side to fix that issue, Engle, Crower and maybe several others now

Have used the plug both ways. Solid roller, solid flat tappet. Really helps bleed off with stock block loose lifter bores. Have done budget lifter bore sleeving on passenger side only and plug on driver side. If un-easy about it, drill hole in plug, .030(.020?)

If the engine is apart I'd drill a small hole in the plug. If the engine is together then run it and see what the lifters look like. If they are galled up then drill a small hole in the plug.

I saved this from years ago. Same as above.

Well it sounded like a good idea. Located a box of Pioneer 19/32 expansion plugs from Summit. I have an early mega block. Possibly the tooling for that driver side galley is a little different than the earlier production block as the core plugs start to move a lot easier once they are past the threaded portion. Fear they might be loose enough to move under the hydraulic pressure of 70lbs oil pressure. Tried 4 different plugs. Each time they were very easily tapped into the rear lifter bore for removal. This idea was to prevent a possible problem but appears it may create an alternate problem if the plug moves and butts up to a lifter at speed. Wasn't a very tight fit at all. Thanks for all the responses. Not gonna take the chance as it is an early block, but never been built. Bought it a couple years ago with an unfinished bore. If I'm careful it should have a few more builds in it. Everything else is done and checked. Gonna put it together. Thanks for all the good help Bill

The rear oil feed ports form an X from the right galley to the left galley. If you drill and tap the passenger side port below the X intersection it will block the drivers galley.
Doug

Been a while since i had to do this but I found a piece of bar stock a better choice.

I don’t recall the diameter so start with a fuel pump pushrod to gauge the bore of that passage and work from there in finding a suitable size rod.

The nice thing about the rod is it can’t move, is easy to remove from the engine if you decide to undue it.

You don’t have to remove the trans or pull the engine from the dyno to undue.

The plug goes in from the passenger side if I recall and allows the oil pressure to be read from the passenger side port.

I've seen this done also but I forgot about it That racer drilled a .060 in the pipe plug he used
OP, how much clearance do you have between the lifters and the lifter bores? If you can wiggle them sideways a tiny bit on the passenger side that will be plenty of splash oil for both sides of the cam
Most of the stock blocks I've check had over .0025+ clearances, they will gush oil out of the lifter bores like crazy when priming the motor with the valley pan off

Thanks all for the suggestions. Had decided to give up on the idea until I read Doug's post. Excellent idea very easy to accomplish with simple hand tools and a wooden pencil. Had to drill small bottom lip out of pass side sending unit hole, "carefully" with sharp, but blunt angle tipped 3/8" driill bit.The small oil galley passage leading down to the drivers side is already 5/16" dia. ,perfect for a 3/8- 16 tap. Threaded that passage at the top 3/8" deep. Drilled .062" hole in center of Allen head set screw, 3/8"-16 x3/8" long set screw.Inserted set screw with some medium lblue loctite into now threaded portion ofpassage leading to the driver side oil galley. Great effective modification and definitely will stay in place. Anybody that wants any 19/32 freeze plugs is welcome to them. I will mail them to you free. Thanks Doug (DVW) for the great idea!! Thanks Moparts! Oh yeah, cut wooden pencil in pieces long enough to drop in both oil passages while I was drilling and tapping to help minimize clean out of left over chips and debris before cleaning out all passages. Picked the pencil lengths out and blew out passages. easy fix! Bill

Got a pic of the finished mod? Doing some oiling mods myself.

Haven't mastered attaching pictures to this site. If you want ,PM me your email and if I can get afew good clear pictures later today I can email them to any interested. It was a relatively simple procedure, but drilling and tapping should be done very cautiously as breaking a tap or drill in that passage could have very expensive consequences. Let me know. Thanks again Doug. Bill

I put a wooden dowel in the X leading to that side. Maybe some oil gets by to oil the lifters. Simple

Definitely something that is in the category of used to do! - the better choice today is bushing the lifter bores and control the oil that way - The comp solid body lifters 829-16 are the only ones I have ever splashed oiled and had good results - but they do become a maintenance item and need to be checked or replaced every so many passes.

All depends on a few things, if you want to reverse shutting off the oil or not, if the motor is together already.

Been using the dowel for years without issue.

No machining of the block and easily reversible.

To each his own.

Dowel idea sounds great also. The set screw is easily removable without removing the engine or trans and has a defined orfice size and so simple to do. Allows easy recalibration of restriction. Bushing the lifter bores works well too, but is for those with deeper pockets than mine, regarding return on investment. Buying that mega block hurt bad enough. Am retired, LOW BUDGET! Thanks again all! Bill