"Cracks" around sump drain plug

[1049Participant]

Am I alone in having a lot of “cracks” around the sump plug? Is it a problem, or perhaps just marks created when the sump was folded / formed?

I don’t _think_ that I have ever over tightened the plug, but not having ever seen others I can’t be sure.

TIA

Julian

[BernieParticipant]

Julian,

I have never seen this before.

It is difficult to tell from your picture but it looks as if your sump is aluminium – as fitted to 11D engines in Tractions and then the later “D” Range.  If that is the case, it is a casting so there will be no “draw” marks from a manufacturing process.

However, there could be “flash” lines from this method of manufacture so I would suggest a good clean with some de-greasing agent then inspect to see if these are indeed relatively deep fissures – which would suggest cracking but could just be a casting phenomenon – or if there is simply a series of slightly raised material witnesses which are collecting muck.

If the sump is pressed steel I would still not expect to see cracks – no matter how much the plug may have been overtightened.

B…….

[1049Participant]

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

[BernieParticipant]

Julian

You have an 11D engine with the correct ALUMINIUM sump.  It clearly has the “D” part number cast into it, visible in the new picture but the quick and easy way to tell at a glance is that it is has a basically “square” section with a stepped flat bottom whereas the Perfo steel sump is rounded with few straight lines.

From your picture I am pretty sure these are marks from the casting.  Unfortunately I no longer have one here I can check to make a comparison.  Perhaps the other reader has one he can check?

B………..

 

 

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