help freeze plugs
Thread Starter
major noob
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,926
From: claremont, nc
help freeze plugs
Well if it isn't another blow to my car I'm installing the fan and clutch and I'm looking for my bolts so I look under my car and see a brass piece I was like that's odd I pick it up feel my block and low and behold there's the hole for the plug what do I do can I reuse the plug and just hammer it back in or what
Administrator
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 42,496
From: Poteau, Ok
The only real way to crack the block is if it froze. I'm thinking that you didn't quite have the antifreeze right and it turned to a slushy ice and expanded to push the freeze plug out. Replace it, check the others, check the oil, fill the cooling system back up with the proper level of antifreeze (there is a tool for checking the mixture), cross your fingers and start the engine to see what happens. If it runs fine and there is no water oozing from it into the oil or out on the ground, your golden.
Registered User
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 3,900
From: Central Illinois
How much room do you have to work in there? Enough to swing a hammer? I used one of those rubber jobs you tighten up with a wrench. Not stock. Not pretty. But easy peasy.
Not sure how that fell out though. Took me most of a day to get one of mine out.
Not sure how that fell out though. Took me most of a day to get one of mine out.
Registered User
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 3,900
From: Central Illinois
The only real way to crack the block is if it froze. I'm thinking that you didn't quite have the antifreeze right and it turned to a slushy ice and expanded to push the freeze plug out. Replace it, check the others, check the oil, fill the cooling system back up with the proper level of antifreeze (there is a tool for checking the mixture), cross your fingers and start the engine to see what happens. If it runs fine and there is no water oozing from it into the oil or out on the ground, your golden.
Administrator
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 42,496
From: Poteau, Ok
They serve 2 purposes Bill, the first as you mentioned, primarily they are there to get the sand out of the block after casting. The unintended purpose is to pop out in case your coolant freezes. As water freezes it expands, pushing out the plug. Sometimes this will happen and other times it won't and you wind up with a cracked block or heads. Hence the term freeze plug.
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 7,743
From: Forest Ranch Ca.
You know I have never seen a soft plug (freeze plug) save a engine from freezing, cracking). In fact I have seen several crack from freeze plug to freeze plug and not disturb the the plugs at all.I think they are there only as a outlet to remove the sand when it is cast and if they do pop on freezing and save the block you are one lucky man.....Tedd
Registered User
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 7,286
I have had a newly installed one fall out.
Improper install procedure probably
Quick fix is the expnading rubber type and snug it real good. Done in minutes, fix it right later.
Proper fix is a new metal plug, correctly installed, may require lifting or removing the engine for access.
If you need a job, do the quicke easy rubber expando plug and work on getting a job. All other things rely on income.
Improper install procedure probably
Quick fix is the expnading rubber type and snug it real good. Done in minutes, fix it right later.
Proper fix is a new metal plug, correctly installed, may require lifting or removing the engine for access.
If you need a job, do the quicke easy rubber expando plug and work on getting a job. All other things rely on income.
Thread Starter
major noob
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,926
From: claremont, nc
I'm hoping improper install because at the time I only drained the front passage for the freeze plugs and on my drivers side the plug is halfway out on the front passage and the second passage is popped out and the rear is fine. This engine came from Cali so weather conditions are different and I'm hoping all is well butttttt now I have to pull the engine to change all my plugs fml
Thread Starter
major noob
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,926
From: claremont, nc
Yes and I did undo the drainplugs just the front ones but I only was using water for the fact if I had leaks like I had been having I wouldn't be wasting antifreeze I drained it every night and well its my fault I ain't saying it isn't I should have did things differently but I always drained it
Connoisseur d'Junque
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 21,183
From: The Hudson Valley
If you drained it reasonably well, you're probably okay - the small amount of water remaining could easily expand upward when freezing before expanding outward.
If I'm not mistaken (don't have a block to stick my fingers in right now), the water jacket goes entirely around the cylinders on the outside of the block, so that even if you didn't remove both plugs on one side, as long as you removed one plug on each side, enough water should have drained out to prevent cracking.
Also, it just doesn't get that cold where you are, so the engine itself may not have had a chance to "hard freeze."
In the end though, it it's winter, and it may go below freezing, you've got to run some antifreeze through the motor, even if you drain it out afterward, so that whatever pockets remain have antifreeze in them instead of plain water.
- Eric
If I'm not mistaken (don't have a block to stick my fingers in right now), the water jacket goes entirely around the cylinders on the outside of the block, so that even if you didn't remove both plugs on one side, as long as you removed one plug on each side, enough water should have drained out to prevent cracking.
Also, it just doesn't get that cold where you are, so the engine itself may not have had a chance to "hard freeze."
In the end though, it it's winter, and it may go below freezing, you've got to run some antifreeze through the motor, even if you drain it out afterward, so that whatever pockets remain have antifreeze in them instead of plain water.
- Eric
Administrator
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 42,496
From: Poteau, Ok
Move past and learn from your mistake. The only thing you can do now is replace the missing/ pushed out freeze plugs. Make sure there is no water in the oil, replenish coolant, and start it up. Monitor it thoroughly for internal/ external leaks, and see how it goes.
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 1,067
From: North Delta, BC
No doubt your frustrated. You may not have the money right now, but you have time and that's free. Good luck on your job search. Sounds like your level of tenacity is on the rise. That's what it takes my friend. I recall when I was younger my engine was leaking oil like a sieve. Thought I cracked the block (did the same as you). Car sat all winter. Dad finally came out and had a look and it was a cracked oil filter, simple fix. Don't give up. Probably a good time to out there job hunting when everyone else is staying snugly warm at home. Good luck.
Connoisseur d'Junque
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 21,183
From: The Hudson Valley
Alright, I guess it's time for this:
Read it, Love it, Live it, Bill.
Read it, Love it, Live it, Bill.
If—
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
— By Rudyard Kipling
1910
1910
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