Has anyone used these before?

I have the 3 on my passenger side of block not looking too healthy but not leaking yet, I've done some reading that these are a permanent alternative to pressing/pounding in new plugs with the engine out.

Dorman Products - 02482
Here's a link, these are NOT the rubber expandable ones

Roughly $6 a piece from what I've seen but hey if I don't need to pull the engine and strain my back these work for me.

 

Well on second thought I think I'm going to just pull the engine and replace all the plugs, install a new dipstick tube and drop it back in. Looking around the engine further I found the driver rear most welch plug is rotted too and the dipstick tube goes right in front of it.

 

I just put brass freeze plugs from NAPA in my 460. Cleaned things up real good and put them in with Loctite 648.

I pulled my motor also. But I had a rear main seal leaking and I needed to do some exhaust manifold work too. It was the right way to do it. Now I have ZERO drips on the garage floor!!!

Todd

 

Thanks for your reply, nice job I'm planning on getting the deep dish brass plugs from napa too. This isn't my first engine pull but it is my first with an automatic. Is it a pain getting the flex plate and torque converter studs aligned when reinstalling the engine? Roughly how long did this take you start to finish?

 

I worked at a machine shop for a while where one of my major duties was dissembling and stripping engines. I've removed maybe thousands of freeze plugs. The key to getting them out easily in one piece is twisting them in the hole and NOT pushing them in. I use a rather large chisel that I blunted and put a slight curve on one side so it fit in the corner of the cups dish. I would then tap in one corner to twist it in the hole until the cup lifted out on the opposite side. I'd then grab that side with vise grips and use the curved side of the vise grips like a pry bar against the block and pill it right out. This method only failed to take them out very easily when the blunted chisel broke through the cup before it freed up from the block.

 

Not really a pain. I had the flex plate turned so the torque converter stud hole was at the bottom so I could see and the converter turned so the stud was close to lined up. I got the engine close to the bell housing and put two long bolts through the bottom bolt holes to keep engine/trans lined up while getting it started together. Also cleaned up the lineup pins and lubed them.

I had the truck down for about 3 weeks working a few evenings a week and I did a few other things. If I were doing just the freeze plugs and rear main I could have been done in a week easy, not using any vacation days.

Todd

 

Thanks for the responses guys. I am going to start working on this tomorrow.

Can anyone tell me if there is an o ring on the engine oil dipstick TUBE where it goes into the block? Or is it just pressed in with nothing? Mine is really rusty and I'm sure it's going to snap when I try to replace it, just want to understand what I will be up against when I am removing the remaining portion that is still passing through the block.

 

Well I ended up leaving the driver side plugs as they were all in excellent shape which is odd because on my 97 460 my driver plugs were in good shape while the passenger side all rotted. I ended up going to napa and bought the deep dish style freeze plugs, unfortunately no one around had deep dish brass plugs so I bought the steel.

I didn't pull the engine, when my cab swap was done a 95 f150 2x4 cab was used not knowing the transmission hump was different so a 3" body lift was installed so the cab would work. This gave me extra clearance for doing this. I loosened the transmission mount and driver side mount, I then removed the pass motor mount and jacked the engine up.

Here's some pictures.



Drop lower rad hose...... kinda missed the bucket




Pull the starter




Old plugs, the rearmost toward the starter was the worst I pushed my finger through it.











Tap in with blunt punch until it pivots sideways then remove with channel locks using the block as leverage.




Was happy to find this.




New plugs installed with a quick coat of engine enamel over them for corrosion resistance, used various sized hammers and a deep well 15/16 socket along with a stubby of the same size. Don't mind the brake hose, for some reason the tire started rubbing it.







All done,

The reason I did this was to get the truck on the road asap, I don't have a week of down time to pull the engine and replace this and that, this took me roughly 3 and a half hours from start to the end of cleaning up the floor.

I'm sure someone in the future will have this same problem and will find this thread hopefully showing an alternative to pulling the engine.

 

Nice write up! I'm sure this will help a lot of people in the future

 

Thanks that's what I'm hoping, put about 50 miles on the truck today. Next repair will be replacing the rotted core support.

 

Perhaps another write up with pictures?