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New M1A leaking oil around gas plug

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g-man07

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Hello M1A Community,

I took out my brand-new M1A for the first time, putting 200 rounds through it. Everything worked as expected, including nice groups.

Back home, I inspected rifle and noted oil seepage, see attached, around the gas plug. My sense is that it's nothing to worry about, unless it gets worse. Maybe it's residual oil from the manufacturing process?

Any thoughts on what could be causing it?

g-man07
 

Attachments

  • Gas Plug.jpeg
    Gas Plug.jpeg
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g-man07 said:
Maybe it's residual oil from the manufacturing process?
Click to expand...
Better clean all that off including inside and the plug before the carbon from firing combined with the oil hardens.

You shouldn't run it with oil in it. No lube is required or desired for both the M1 Garand & M14/M1A. The hot gases will turn oil or grease to a sticky varnish. You will not like the results.
 
You guys must not live in a high humidity part of the states.......

I run, and store mine with two or three drops of Nitro Solvent applied to the piston through the gas cylinder vent hole. And haven't had a single issue in 23 years of doing it.
 
There's a BIG difference between putting oil/grease in the gas system, and a couple drops of solvent.

Both USMC and US Army said it was OK to put a couple drops of solvent (Hoppe, etc.) in the gas port for rifles that may see the armorer for awhile.
 
I've also tried gun oil, and 3-in-1 oil for storage, then Nitro Solvent before a range trip with no ill effects.

Also seen the Garand shoot 220 grain 30-06 with no issues as long as it was lubricated properly.
 
Jfal said:
Loose plug? Cleaned rifle? Too many questions.
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Loose plug! When I went to open plug for inspection, I found it was finger-tight!

Don't know how the H*ll this happened. Obviously, I didn't tighten it enough on reassembly and it came loose during initial firing of 300 rounds.

What's the rule for tightening?
 
from another site...

According to Springfield Armory R & D SA-NM11-2612 report, page 20, the gas cylinder plug should be tightened to approximately 15 foot pounds. I tighten mine @ 12 foot pounds and it has never shot loose.

Convert inch-pound to foot pounds - Conversion of Measurement Units

Do a quick conversion: 1 inch pounds = 0.083333330362716 foot pounds using the online calculator for metric conversions.
www.convertunits.com www.convertunits.com

You really MUST use a Foot Pound Torque Wrench to tighten the Gas Plug when you change the pistons. This is the only way to ensure uniformity for test purposes. The Army used 15 ft lbs. as their torque setting, but we Marines used 23 ft. lbs. as we found in a very few rifles 15 ft. lbs would not keep the gas plugs tight. 23 ft. lbs of torque ALWAYS kept all the gas plugs tight between cleanings. It is kind of funny how we came up with 23 ft. lbs. as the standard. We averaged what four Armorers on THE Marine Corps Rifle Team used individually “by feel” when they tightened up the gas plugs and found it was enough to keep the plugs tight. So it wasn’t from rare mechanical engineering or even scientific analysis, but rather what WORKED.
 
Lube, lack of lube, wrong lube can ALL result in problems. A few years back #1 Son, a 20 yr retired Marine was in an LGS when this salesman came in peddling the latest and greatest “lube”. The boy decided to try it. Cleaned and lubed a Garand, a 92 Beretta, and a J frame Smith with it. The Smith was loaded and carried, the other two placed in his safe. A couple months later we went to the range and he brought all three. The Garand was locked up solid-his 210 lb butt literally had to kick the bolt to open it. The 92 and the Smith were equally frozen and non operable. The slide on the 92 wouldn’t move, the cylinder on the Smith would neither turn Nor swing out😳. Seems the Frog guts used to make this Lube used a carrier agent, which evaporated and left behind a sticky caramel colored “tar” behind. The 92 and the Smith wound up sitting overnight in a bucket of kerosene, while the Garand was very painfully stripped and washed down with a lot of Hoppe’s. Three firearms known to be paragons of reliability had been rendered useless by the simple expedient of cleaning and “lubricating” them with crap. I had a lot of fun teasing the boy and reminding him that both his grandfather and I’d been shooting for decades using #9 and plain old 3 in 1 and never had a lubrication issue😊
 
Good post! A few years ago, someone was trying to sell me on F-Lube. I just didn't like the sound of it.

Reading your post, I'm glad I didn't use it!
 
g-man07 said:
Good post! A few years ago, someone was trying to sell me on F-Lube. I just didn't like the sound of it.

Reading your post, I'm glad I didn't use it!
Click to expand...
I guess the salesman laid it on pretty heavy. Local shop took some and sold it for a few weeks before they started getting complaints. I guess it’s ok if you clean and relube every few days, but if it sits…. Still, I had a lot of fun teasing my boy about it😊.
 
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