I am not tired of hearing about it Carmine, and I bet most if not all are not either. Someone will benefit from this info. I know I have. This is my first 409 and I didn't know those drain holes were 90 degrees. I am going to go out to the garage and look at a pair I have when I get a chance.
Hey Jeff, if you have an old speedo cable, thread it through the oil drain hole. Its interesting to see the turn it makes. Someone in one of these threads mentioned to use this cable. What a great idea. And what really amazed me was this little valley where the holes met. Liquids don't drain uphill on their own without help of some type. The help here being an accumulation of oil in the pocket below the drain hole. I never professed to be intelligent or an engineer, but this design leaves something to be desired. I think its poor at best. I guess they did the best they could. You know what would be interesting is to have an acrylic pair of valve covers. Something you see through. I'd love to see how much oil actually does accumulate in that pocket and on the bottom rail of the head. I'm surprised there aren't more complaints about the bottom of the valve covers leaking. Regardless of my issues, I still love those motors. I would do it all over again and may very well someday. Only this time, I hope to armed with a little more knowledge.
Yeah Mike, that last hole was solid with something. The others required a little pushing, twisting, pulling but I was able to get through. I could hear the cable hitting the metal pan on the bottom of the intake. I did each one several times just to make sure. But that 4th hole didn't want to cooperate. I think collectively it took me about 5 minutes to break through. The cable just didn't want to follow any route. I kept at it and finally. I really thought I would have to take off the intake to find the obstruction. As of now, guess I got lucky. I'll also try and find that posting by Big Jim. I always enjoy reading that stuff , Carmine.