Block heater falling out

S-west

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So today I was driving down the highway in my rig when a couple of girlies in a jeep pull up along side me all smiling and what not, and then not 30 seconds later my truck starts pouring white smoke so I pull over, how embarising haha. But back to the important part, I pulled over and it was running fine but I killed it immediately thinking I blew headgaskets again so I checked the oil and it was fine, so I crawled underneath to see if it was pouring out of a head, and what do I see? The block heater hanging out with the front axle. It appears that it unscrewed itself and fell out. Is this common? I hope I didn't hurt my motor I pulled over ASAP and my buddy behind me said it was comin out for about a quarter mile. The smoke worried me but I think it was falling onto the exhaust.
 

HammerDown

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I've had my truck since new (1988) and can't say I've ever heard about or experience the block heater falling out!
But an old hard o-ring weeping, yes.

Many years ago I did replace my failed oe unit...can't say it was all that fun.
Starter has to come out and of course drain coolant, and of course I still got that sh*t running down my arm.
For me, things seen to fail or act-up when it's freezing cold outside or sweltering hot.
 

S-west

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Ya that's usually how it goes, on the bright side there's no coolant left for me to drain out.
 

chris142

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Yipes! Mine has 2 of those block heater things. I dont use em and i hope mine dont fall out
 

icanfixall

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And I just posted a heater from ebay for around $33.00. Might want to look for it. What you can do is install a cup type freeze plug till you can source a heater. I believe its a 1 1/2 inch that you need. Use the brass ones because they are easier to remove. But no. I have never seen or heard of them falling out.
 

S-west

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I wish I would have waited to buy mine then. I just ordered a zero start block heater from advanced for 70 bucks. I have no clue if it the brass type or not I guess I'll see when it comes in, I may have to return it and go with yours if it's still on eBay. I only ask if it is common because a kid that went to school with a friend of mine had the same thing happen.
 

icanfixall

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The brass cup type freeze plug is a suggestion to replace the block heater with. The heaters only come with an o ring seal on them. not a cup type seal. Sorry if I confused anyone.
 

Knuckledragger

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My block heater fell out of a brand new (rebuilt) engine. The butterfly nut that holds everything together broke, letting the coolant pressure pop out the heater. Same white "smoke" while I pulled over. It was a used part that I reused in the rebuild. Either it (the nut) was fatigued or I overtightened it by mistake while building the engine. Using a screw that small is a pretty crummy design.
 

Wyreth

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You know, I wonder if it would be worth making a coolant pressure sensor with a three color idiot light (under, correct, over) Would be dead simple to plumb into the system and would give us a water loss warning long before one got into trouble.

Any reason why this would be a bad idea? Or ways it could give a false positive? (besides radiator cap failure)
 

ifrythings

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Mine didn't fall out but it leaked after I was forced to put the engine back in as my rebuild one had issues, thing started leaking before I even got it filled full of coolant (not mentioning the water pump decided to start profusely leaking at the same time), o-ring was rock hard and toast and the wing clamp was broke in two. Also not sure why it was green and slimy

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S-west

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The brass cup type freeze plug is a suggestion to replace the block heater with. The heaters only come with an o ring seal on them. not a cup type seal. Sorry if I confused anyone.
Ok I see what you where saying now, and the block heater is suppose to come in Wednesday so I'm going to just wait it out to save the haste of draining the coolant out
 

S-west

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Today after work I was able to actually take a closer look and in fact the wing clamp is broke right in half just like the one above.
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kc0stp

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You know, I wonder if it would be worth making a coolant pressure sensor with a three color idiot light (under, correct, over) Would be dead simple to plumb into the system and would give us a water loss warning long before one got into trouble.

Any reason why this would be a bad idea? Or ways it could give a false positive? (besides radiator cap failure)

A lot of racecars with datalogging have this feature included as a readout/warning light for this exact reason. Falling coolant pressure can alert you to problems a lot sooner then the temp gauge can, furthermore a temp gauge requires coolant to get a reading no coolant = no warning on temp gauge. Prime example last year at a Chumpcar race ($500 cars running a 24 hour enduro) Subaru blows a headgasket and looses all the coolant, temp gauge never moved so driver never pulled in, ended up severely warping the block/head. (after spending the night trying to fix it, they poured as much coolant in as they could, ran 10-15min, dumped 40lbs of ice on the engine and took the checkered 30min later)
 

laserjock

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I would look at a water level sensor that could screw in somewhere high up in the system if you were going to do that. Not exactly sure how they work but some work with any fluid. They are process controll devices.
 

79jasper

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GM's have a low coolant sensor.
I see how both types would be useful.


I would think a person could do both.
You could wire up certain voltage LEDs for the different pressure levels.

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