I finally got around to doing this tonight. I coated each bit I used and the tap in some moly grease and very little metal (that I could feel anyway) got into the pan.

I still need to finalize my oil return tomorrow after I finish retapping one of my turbo to manifold bolt holes. 2 of the bolts broke off when I tried to remove them. Got the grade 8s ready to go to replace them...

 

I actually did a test on a sump pan off the engine and there's hardly anything that gets into the pan at all if you drill nice and slowly.
If you go at it with stupid RPM's then there's small bits that will get into the pan, but seeing as most pans have a nice layer of sludge in the bottom it just sticks to that anyway and never goes anywhere.
A lot of scaremongering goes on it seems with the drilling crowd for no real reason at all!

 

I did the greased bit, slow rpm, and then flushed with 2 quarts of cheap oil. I didnt see any come out with the flush, I didnt feel any when I stuck my fingers in, and the bits were packed with shavings.

its way less drama than it seems like. I was so afraid I taped my bit so it couldnt go deeper with out me pushing. worked fine.

 

The only 'scary' moment I had was when one of the intermediate bits I was using pulled it's way through more than I was expecting. Luckily it didn't hit anything, but it was one of those 'oh ****' moments.

 

Talk to SamNavy. or drive up here and like 10 of us can do it. But my drill and tap is in FL right now with the Rican.

 

If I could find a dam tap that is the right size I'd get mine done, ******* 22mm(-10an size)

 

My -10AN used a 1/2" NPT. You can buy the correct parts to do it.

 

All these standard size stuff is so confusing...The physical outter diameter of the fitting is 22mm...The inner diameter is 1/2inch

This site
http://icrank.com/cgi-bin/pageman/pa...rt_npt.htm&t=2

says 1/2''npt size will need a 45/64 tap...Thats only 19.64ish mm...Something ain't right... (the threads must make up the difference I'm guessing)

but the next biggest tap size is too big...me so confused.

 

thats where my tape helped i could only pull in till the tape on the bit. enough time for the to let of the trigger and pull... even with the tape it yanked pretty good.