DIY Duratec balance shaft delete

Some Duratec blocks are equipped with a balance shaft. As most sports car owners are more concerned with weight and rotary mass than ride comfort that is something that needs to be removed. A balance shaft are a quite big lump of iron situated below the crank, inside the sump, and a dry sump doesn't have room for it anyway.

Plug before punched in place.

The only problem is that there is an oil supply to the balance shaft that needs to be blocked. You can find kits for that from Cosworth among others. They're not expensive but as usual Cosworth's delivery times are not from this earth so I decided to try a DIY solution.

A M8 cap head bolt and some grinding made a perfect fit. Degreased with acetone and then Loctite cylindrical bonding. Unlike my VCT Delete stub this plug does take load from the oil pressure. Therefore I filed the plug on the cap head side, making the hole a bit deeper than the plug. Then I carefully deformed the block with a punch so the plug would be kept in place.