Leaking frost plug

[SpecialK]

A few months back I installed a frost plug heater. It worked very well until one day on a joy ride the clamp let go and scorched the block on the way out(long drive home and a lot of water). Anyways, I tried to re-seat the heater with no success. Put in a new frost plug, with no success. Put in a new heater with RTV and no success. Everything I have tried has leaked. I'm at the point were I want to throw a frost plug back in and JB Weld it, and be done! Just wondering if anyone has any tips or advice.

 

[m16ty]

I don't understand when you say the block was "scorched". Do you mean the inside of the hole is damaged? If so, JB Weld may be your only option, depending on how bad the damage is.

Most freeze plug heaters seal with a o-ring. Maybe try a new o-ring and see if that seals it up.

 

[Jeepsinker]

Never heard of a scorched block port... You must be doing something wrong.

 

[SpecialK]

Sorry, I didn't mean scorched, I meant deeply scratched.

 

[LowTech]

I just started leaking pretty major out of a freeze plug on the intake manifold.
At the moment I do not have access to the appropriate TM, and only have today to find another one before I'm back out of a city.
Can anyone tell me what size they are?

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[gimpyrobb]

The intake is aluminum and I don't remember seeing any "freeze plugs" in it. Got a pic?

 

[LowTech]

In this section.

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[LowTech]

This is my temp fix that got me to the city. :-]

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[gimpyrobb]

Got me on that one! I was even looking at pics before I posted, my bad.

 

[41cl8m5]

That part is aluminum, I'm not sure of the size of the plug but one possible fix you could look into is getting i piece of flat stock aluminum and have anyone very familiar with welding aluminum cap the "hole". Trying to smooth out the port and keeping it round and straight while on the engine would be very difficult if not impossible to do to make a positive seal with a freeze plug. That being said removing the manifold is opening up a bigger can of "how deep does the rabbit hole go" issue with Murphy's Law that if it can go wrong it will, like snapped bolts, frozen nuts, hard to find and expensive replacement gaskets/hoses .... One other thought is the possibility of using a tap maybe a pipe tap and thread the hole for a threaded or pipe plug just make sure to remove all the material in the process, you don't want any metal floating around in your cooling system.

Sorry on your predicament good luck on getting the old girl up and running again
Chris

 

[rustystud]

That part is aluminum, I'm not sure of the size of the plug but one possible fix you could look into is getting i piece of flat stock aluminum and have anyone very familiar with welding aluminum cap the "hole". Trying to smooth out the port and keeping it round and straight while on the engine would be very difficult if not impossible to do to make a positive seal with a freeze plug. That being said removing the manifold is opening up a bigger can of "how deep does the rabbit hole go" issue with Murphy's Law that if it can go wrong it will, like snapped bolts, frozen nuts, hard to find and expensive replacement gaskets/hoses .... One other thought is the possibility of using a tap maybe a pipe tap and thread the hole for a threaded or pipe plug just make sure to remove all the material in the process, you don't want any metal floating around in your cooling system.

Sorry on your predicament good luck on getting the old girl up and running again
Chris

You cannot tap the hole as there is material just below the opening. You need to install some "brass" 3/4" freeze plugs. At least I believe their 3/4" . Could be 1" . It's been a few years since I changed mine.

 

[LowTech]

7/8 was too small, so I picked up 1" ones, but they are steel. Can I not use those and need to have brass because it's aluminum?

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[texas30cal]

I prefer brass too, and it shouldn't be as rough on that aluminum bore. You can use a socket of just the right size or a piece of round bar possibly with a slight taper ground or filed on it to expand a brass plug slightly. Expand before installation!! A pair of calipers would be handy to check the size before and during attempting to expand it. This will tighten the fit and some of the "ultra" rtv can be used to seal the scratches in the bore. I hope this makes sense, I've used this before, but I'm tired and may not be doing a very good job of explaining.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Steel will work right now, but an on replacing when you get a chance. Galvanic corrosion will come into play

 

[LowTech]

Roger that.
Have a head gasket replacement coming up and replacing all of the plugs w/ brass was one of the things I had on the list.

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