Leaking Freeze plug
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 2,057
Likes: 5
From: Bay Shore, NY
The last time I had to replace a freeze plug it was in almost the same spot and accessible. I used a slide hammer. I tapped a screw into the bad plug, attached the slide hammer to it and started pulling. I got it out far enough to wedge a small chisel in and pry it out the rest of the way. It wasn't a bad job and I was grateful it wasn't a plug at the back of the motor.
1st Gear
Joined: Oct 2019
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
From: Hawaii
I have the same problem with the same plug and need helpi live in Hawaii too!
I need help with the same plug can you help me?
QUOTE=Opihi59;1575228198]So on Thursday, I noticed this just after I parked the Vette in the garage:
Yep, antifreeze. I looked at all the usual suspects--weep hole from the waterpump-dry, all hoses-dry, radiator-dry. After about 20 minutes of searching and burning myself on everything still hot, I finally discovered this:
Leaking Freeze plug on the right front of the engine, just to right of Optispark. I looked at the other ones I was able to see and they all look pristine. After I scraped off the goo, I got a small geiser you can see, and I hope at this point you can feel my pain.
I suppose I should be somewhat thankful, and of course I am, that this is likely the only freeze plug of 8 that is sorta semi accessible to at least see, kinda/sorta. I started by removing about everything I could once I had disconnected the neg at the battery, shielding the Optispark with rags, plastic, draining the coolant system. At this point I should add that I run a minimum of 50/50 antifreeze all the time even though I live in Hawaii and it never gets cold
I even checked it with a floaty checky thingey (name escapes me at the moment, but it looks like a turkey baster and you suck up your antifreeze in it to check spec gravity to see your freeze point) and confirmed I was good down to -10*. The antifreeze of course also has anticorrosive components that are supposed to protect against this sorta thing, but it kinda looked as if the freeze plug had rusted from outside-in. I read up all I could online about removing/installing freeze plugs and all the photos were of engine blocks conveniently on engine stands with no obstructions to anything. Such was not the case with my situation. I learned you can drive in one edge of the plug and it will "rotate" in the hole so you can grab it with pliers and yank it out. Um, no such luck. Not even close. I even permanently lost somewhere in the front of the vehicle my favorite pin-punch, it went into never never land. I was able to get a small drill with an ultra short drill bit in it and drill a hole, then thread in a coarse thread bolt as below:
The idea was to get some variety of prybar, plier, slide puller on it and yank it out. No such luck. The threads pulled thru before anything budged. Same thing with 2 subsequent drill holes. I used every tool usually reserved for destructive carpentry and managed to mangle the thing to an unrecognizable twisted chunk of metal, but still no luck, and it was hardly coughing up blood. Lost skin off every knuckle, etc. Stopped taking photos at this point, about 3 hours into the struggle. Essentially all that remained was the rim of the thing and I used a carbide burr in a die grinder to carefully thin out the rim until it was like tin foil across an arc of about 30* and then that crumpled and it came free with some special swear words reserved for such trying occasions. I had to be very very careful not to grind thru the rim and damage the bore or it would never seal. Took a lot of tedious, meticulous time, sorta like Endodontic root canal work. At least the drill/grinder sounded the same. The old galvanized steel plug here finally out in all its mangled glory, next to the new brass plug. If you can't tell which is which, stop reading here.
From all my reading, generally it was recommended to use a sealer. It seemed all the genuine serious racers recommended ThreadLocker Red, most others recommended Permatex Aviation Sealer. You can see what I used, and the "driver" I utilized to seat the new plug. I was very lucky to find this, as the parts places I usually utilize had no clue about what this was, even though I took a photo of the bottle from an online writeup.
I cleaned up the bore where the new plug was to go, it seems the antirust stuff had protected the engine block inside the water jacket pretty well.
Centered the new plug in the bore, carefully drove it in. Not much room at all to get any sorta purposeful swing, so it was a lot of tapping and various swearing noises associated with finger impacts, etc.
Flushed, filled with new Antifreeze, ran it up to operating temperatures and no leaks. Of course I am thankful for several things, one being that I noticed it when it was a mere trickle, it didn't leave me dead on the roadside, or overheated and seized, and the location was in a relatively "accessible" location and not one on the rear of the block, or on the sides behind the motor mounts etc which would have required pulling the engine.
Of course now I am suspicious of the other 7, but will keep a close watch under the Vette for any fluid leaks.
Anyone else have this much fun today? 9 hours of joy here.
[/QUOTE]
QUOTE=Opihi59;1575228198]So on Thursday, I noticed this just after I parked the Vette in the garage:
Yep, antifreeze. I looked at all the usual suspects--weep hole from the waterpump-dry, all hoses-dry, radiator-dry. After about 20 minutes of searching and burning myself on everything still hot, I finally discovered this:
Leaking Freeze plug on the right front of the engine, just to right of Optispark. I looked at the other ones I was able to see and they all look pristine. After I scraped off the goo, I got a small geiser you can see, and I hope at this point you can feel my pain.
I suppose I should be somewhat thankful, and of course I am, that this is likely the only freeze plug of 8 that is sorta semi accessible to at least see, kinda/sorta. I started by removing about everything I could once I had disconnected the neg at the battery, shielding the Optispark with rags, plastic, draining the coolant system. At this point I should add that I run a minimum of 50/50 antifreeze all the time even though I live in Hawaii and it never gets cold
I even checked it with a floaty checky thingey (name escapes me at the moment, but it looks like a turkey baster and you suck up your antifreeze in it to check spec gravity to see your freeze point) and confirmed I was good down to -10*. The antifreeze of course also has anticorrosive components that are supposed to protect against this sorta thing, but it kinda looked as if the freeze plug had rusted from outside-in. I read up all I could online about removing/installing freeze plugs and all the photos were of engine blocks conveniently on engine stands with no obstructions to anything. Such was not the case with my situation. I learned you can drive in one edge of the plug and it will "rotate" in the hole so you can grab it with pliers and yank it out. Um, no such luck. Not even close. I even permanently lost somewhere in the front of the vehicle my favorite pin-punch, it went into never never land. I was able to get a small drill with an ultra short drill bit in it and drill a hole, then thread in a coarse thread bolt as below:The idea was to get some variety of prybar, plier, slide puller on it and yank it out. No such luck. The threads pulled thru before anything budged. Same thing with 2 subsequent drill holes. I used every tool usually reserved for destructive carpentry and managed to mangle the thing to an unrecognizable twisted chunk of metal, but still no luck, and it was hardly coughing up blood. Lost skin off every knuckle, etc. Stopped taking photos at this point, about 3 hours into the struggle. Essentially all that remained was the rim of the thing and I used a carbide burr in a die grinder to carefully thin out the rim until it was like tin foil across an arc of about 30* and then that crumpled and it came free with some special swear words reserved for such trying occasions. I had to be very very careful not to grind thru the rim and damage the bore or it would never seal. Took a lot of tedious, meticulous time, sorta like Endodontic root canal work. At least the drill/grinder sounded the same. The old galvanized steel plug here finally out in all its mangled glory, next to the new brass plug. If you can't tell which is which, stop reading here.
From all my reading, generally it was recommended to use a sealer. It seemed all the genuine serious racers recommended ThreadLocker Red, most others recommended Permatex Aviation Sealer. You can see what I used, and the "driver" I utilized to seat the new plug. I was very lucky to find this, as the parts places I usually utilize had no clue about what this was, even though I took a photo of the bottle from an online writeup.
I cleaned up the bore where the new plug was to go, it seems the antirust stuff had protected the engine block inside the water jacket pretty well.
Centered the new plug in the bore, carefully drove it in. Not much room at all to get any sorta purposeful swing, so it was a lot of tapping and various swearing noises associated with finger impacts, etc.
Flushed, filled with new Antifreeze, ran it up to operating temperatures and no leaks. Of course I am thankful for several things, one being that I noticed it when it was a mere trickle, it didn't leave me dead on the roadside, or overheated and seized, and the location was in a relatively "accessible" location and not one on the rear of the block, or on the sides behind the motor mounts etc which would have required pulling the engine.
Of course now I am suspicious of the other 7, but will keep a close watch under the Vette for any fluid leaks.
Anyone else have this much fun today? 9 hours of joy here.
[/QUOTE]
