Reply To: "Cracks" around sump drain plug

Thanks, Bernie. I have just done a “magnet check”, and unlike the drain plug itself the sump is NOT magnetic, so it must be aluminium / an alloy. The engine has a large “1 1 D” cast in the left hand side of the block (when staring behind the car), and the engine is the original one, according to the Conservatoire. The TA is a late 1956 Paris built Normale.

I have cleaned up the area around the drain plug, and I can’t see any leaking or weeping, and would like to think that they are slightly raised manufacturing marks rather than stress fractures. Partly because they are fairly evenly distributed around the circumference. See new photo which was taken from below.

Julian