Adding another bolthole in the front of the block

[CTX-SLPR]

Howdy,

As part of the swap to my gerotor oil pump I swaped to the Series II front cover which relocated one of the bolt holes on the front face of the block. Since I'm concerned about having unequal clamping force on the pump I'd like to drill the new hole.

Probably the best pictures I have of the place the hole should be. Is there anything behind there I would need to be worried about? I plan on using the hole with a drill guide to drill the pilot around 3/8in deep then tap it.

Thanks,

 

[BlownV6]

I guess since no one else is chiming in I will answer this. I have drilled many holes in the front of Stage 2 blocks , there really isnt any magical spaces behind the front of the block. Take a bit of time to pull every plug or cap in the front of block and take a flashlight , various size drill bits and start figuring out where everything is drilled for passages. If there is anything that you dont want to hit or drill into it will show up doing this!!
All holes/passages are drilled!! So if you cant find where its drilled from , then it not there. Looks like your going to be close to the bottom of the water barrel , you can look down and measure thru the top of the block to see exactly where your trying to drill. Good chance that you will be drilling into a big solid area just below the water barrel or maybe even just below that thick area into the crankshaft area. May be able to mearure from the pan rail up to the hole then go inside the block and find the same measurement to see where you will be exiting the backside of the front of the block. I know it scary , but you can do it!! Keep us posted!! Mike

 

[CTX-SLPR]

Poking around on the outside and memory says that if I hit anything it'll be the water jacket which around half of the rest of the timing cover holes are wet so that's no big thing. You can't drill anything up since the oil gallery is in the way, down doesn't have an access point and there is a water volume right on top of it so it might go down. When I pull the top of the timing cover off I'll use a pipe cleaner in the water jacket to see how deep it is.