Freeze Plugs

[Agnem]

Anybody have any experience installing Freeze Plugs in anything? I'm trying to put two in a Ford 302 that's in my boat. Talk about PITA! I'm tore up real bad from pretzling myself trying to get my arms in there. I've got them in, but there not in as far as the originals were. What are my chances that they will hold, and how hard to you have to hit them anyway? Sure would help if I had the right tool. All I had is a nail set to tap around the edges.

 

[dbensen]

Mel,
What type are they. I have experience with the dish type that are used in our IDI's. I clean up the block with light sandpaper and Scotchbrite and give it a wash with some laquer thinner. There are two types of the old style, before RTV, one that never hardens and one that does. I think they are simply called 1 and 2. Use the one that hardens and put a thin film on the block and plug. Getting a strait shot at the dimple was the hard part. I ended up using the end of my breaker bar. Kept hitting it till it looked like the others. Two years this Thanksgiving with no problems. Hope this helps, Doug

 

[geonc]

Mel, brass or steel cup plugs---deep or shallow?

No room I suppose for a n old socket and extension?

In most cases, once the contact area is clean ....as long as the plug went in reasonably straight-- think any seal or bearing race{as not giving any distortion}-- and is below the flush line of the bore , the slight concave edge will have sufficient bite to effectively seal.

Had one blow in a 12V92 at full bore --in the hull
Burnt the crap--3rd deg-- out of the service mgr's both lower legs.....they were NOT installed by me

 

[Agnem]

Geo, that's the big fear. That I'll be happily crusing along with a skier in tow, and POP! Big time steam everywhere, and river water in the bedroom.


They are going in streight, and are flush with the block, but the others are about 1/16-3/32 recessed. I can't say I really cleaned the block up much, other than to just run my finger around the hole, and it felt pretty good. I had heard to try and put RTV on it, but the RTV just made it so slippery that after dropping it in the bilge a few times, I said the heck with that and stopped trying to put it on. They are metal, and about 1/4" dished, with a good size rim on them. Got them from the Ford dealer, because my marina couldn't source any from OMC. It pains me that marinized Fords were not popular, and hence parts availability is nill now. I'm told my exhaust manifolds are like gold. This engine has about 325 hours on it, never seen salt, and looks like new. Being 13 years old it's in really good shape. I think the original plugs were brass or bronze. I was afraid to re-use them even though they looked great. Doug, I think these are opposite what the IDI's have on them. I think you have to hit the edges and not the center.

 

[geonc]

I think you have to hit the edges and not the center.

BINGO! setting with a smaller dia punch in the "cup" area will only distort the cup.

Is your eng fresh or raw water cooled?

 

[Agnem]

Raw water. Used in non-salty lakes and rivers only.

 

[Roland_Jenkins]

Get a freeze plug installation tool. It looks like a disk on a handle that swivels.
Or get something like this.
http://www.brandsonsale.com/ht-001499.html
Smear a little red gasket sealer around the hole. Freeze plug needs to be flush with the engine block. If nothing else, get the rubber plug with a nut that tightens the plug.

From what you described, the chances of it holding are slim to none and Slim is out of town.
Its a boat! So unless you can walk on water *its been done before* I would want to know the freeze plugs are going to hold.

 

[sle2115]

We never used RTV in the machine shop, and believe me, we did a bunch of freeze plugs, every day!!! We used the hardening form of PermaGasket, like the brown aviation gasket sealer, only it hardens. It will act as a lubricant, to some extent, but won't be as slippery as RTV. Do as said and clean the hole and surrounding area, find a socket that just fits inside the "cup" of the freeze plug and tap it in. You can set it a little below flush with the socket as well, but don't go too far. Also compare the depth of the plug you removed to the new one. If that is different, it may not seat to full depth. You might want to pressure check the cooling system as well if possible. The rubber ones with the expansion nut might be the ticket as well. Most inboards I have worked on don't have much room to get a straight shot at the freeze plug hole.

I do have a better suggestion though. Raise that motor out of the boat and you can get at them easily, then once you have them installed correctly, throw that little 302 over board and stuff a 6.9 in that bad boy!!!

 

[EMD Diesel Power]

sle2115 beat me to it.... I've always had the best of luck with the biggest socket that will fit the inside of the cup... and tap it in that way. Been awhile since I've done freeze plugs....

 

[sle2115]

sle2115 beat me to it.... I've always had the best of luck with the biggest socket that will fit the inside of the cup... and tap it in that way. Been awhile since I've done freeze plugs....

We had about any tool you could imagine, including various flavors of bearing/race drivers as well as freeze plug installation tools, they generally spent their time in the tool box while we used sockets for everything!

 

[Agnem]

Interesting. I was afraid to hammer on any part of it that wasn't the lip. Well I will store this info in memory until Spring. For now, it's buttoned up and put away for the winter. I'll try to get a took in the mean time, just because I have a tool fetish. As for putting a diesel in it, don't think I haven't considered it! Main problem though is there is no diesel available on the waterways that I frequent.

 

[sle2115]

Interesting. I was afraid to hammer on any part of it that wasn't the lip.

I would be more afraid of hammering on the lip that anything. If you distort the side of the cup, you are screwed. We ALWAYS, used something that fit inside the cup, as close to the inner wall of the cup. I would think even just tapping the rim of the cup would distort the side of it to heck.

 

[Agnem]

I looked at the tools that are on-line like this one and decided that they were designed to hit the rim only. However, if experience says a socket will work, then I probably should give it a couple whacks with one of those.