[Whippet]

Neptune, you are indeed "god of the sea"

As part of this episode, I read Don Moyer's writing about the steel pipe plug that can go bad.

Has anyone ever replaced this -- and is it recommended as part of "preventable maintenance"? My serial number is over 194,000.

From Don Moyer guide to "water in oil"
2) Remove the valve cover to inspect for water entering into the valve chamber through a hole in the very center of the water jacket behind the valve springs. In some of the later model engines (usually with serial numbers over 194,000), Universal used a 1/4" pipe plug to close a hole in that area. The problem is that they used plain steel plugs which have a strong potential to fail after the 25 or so years since they were installed.