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Snapped Off Hello all you Corvette Gurus. I was going to drain, flush and refill my 1998 Corvette's Coolant. The car was a New York car and I recently purchased it, having it shipped to South Florida where I live.
Iv'e done many repairs / maintenance so far and today I was going to Flush the Coolant and replace with AC Delco 50/50 Dexcool. I was trying to be careful but the plug was on extremely tight. after using wise grips, pliers and bare hands, the cheap plastic plug snapped. The remains are flush with the radiator housing.
I don't know how you would get the remaining end out without risking the radiator. If it did not rotate at all and is not leaking, leave it alone.
Quite a bit of coolant can be drained by unbolting the thermostat housing. The thermostat is one with the housing on a 98 unless a later water pump, housing and separate thermostat has been installed.
Good time to change the thermostat, I use ten years as a benchmark thermostat life. If you don't change the thermostat but do unbolt it to drain coolant check the O ring before re bolting it in place. A new thermostat will come with a new O ring.
If it is leaking you may need a new radiator. If so, get one with a standard, brass and screw drain valve like DeWitts.
Looks like a new Rad. is in order here. Unless of course , you can remove the remnants of the drain plug left in the radiator and if the quarter turn threads for the plug are still intact, if so, then like other have said just get a new drain plug. Good luck!
It may be easier with the radiator out of the car. You should be able to use a screwdriver against the roll pin and work it out of the groove. Good luck.
Edit...
I forget what style our cars have. Amazon shows this.
eBay says no to this design.
If it's the roll pin style work it out the groove work s screwdriver. Either the 1/4 drive strips or the petcock gets stuck when you have to pull. I've done this before. Looks like you had the petcock with the big wing. I replace the 1/4 drive with those. Good luck.
If it is leaking I think I would probably try to drill the remnants of the plug out and see if the radiator can be salvaged. If it's not leaking I'd just pull the lower hose to drain it and go on with life.
Someone did something similar to mine at some point before I owned it. It had the other petcock design - the white plastic one with the metal retaining pin. The pin must have rusted and broke, so they super glued it back in and sent it down the road. :-|
Snapped Off Coolant Drain Plug
hacks.