rdsaustintx
Veteran Member
Why (oh why) would Bota use a rubber plug rather than a conventional, cup-shaped metal "dutch" plug??

It is common practice to tap such holes and seal them with socket head plugs. They NEVER fall out. For the factory to seal it with a drive in plug seems very foolish to me.
When I first read this, knew exactly what it was, and what had happened. An oil gallery plug has popped or blown out. Have seen this before. You need to contact Kubota, and find out if they are going to help you with this. This usually occurs on a very cold morning start up, with the possibly of the oil pressure relief valve sticking in it's bore also, due to extreme cold weather shrinking the bore. This causes the oil pressure to rocket well over 100psi. This has also been know to blow off oil filter gaskets, and pumping oil out of sump rapidly. These plugs are driven in at the factory, and are a plug to close off a passage which was drilled into the block to route the oil to front of engine for areas up front which need oiling. An old "hot rodder" trick is to remove all plugs, tap holes and install red loctited allen plugs, so there is no way the engine can blow the plugs out. Good Luck with Kubota. I personally think if no human error on your part can be found, then the factory should stand behind their workmanship on plug installation.
It would be good to know what area you are located in, and what was the weather for the day it happened. Pictures?
What happened to Tractorman -Down? You out there? You back up yet?
I dunno who designed it that way, but they need a swift kick in the pills!