I have a 300 i6 in my truck and it's been dumping all the coolant for some reason recently. Ive narrowed it down to a plug that looks like a freeze plug with a good size rust hole in the bottom. What exactly is this plug and how can I replace it? I'm not home right now so I'll be posting pictures as soon as I get home

 

If it is a Freeze plug, Drive a screwdriver through it and pull/pry it out ...

Coat the sealing edge of the new one with a thin 100% coating of Permatex High Tack, use a socket that just fits into the (or a freeze plug driver) Freeze plug and tap it in ...

Make sure you keep the socket flat on the freeze plug as you are driving it in, ensure you drive into the block squarely and evenly.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

Just so you know people may call them freeze plugs but that is wrong.
They are casting plugs used to get casting sand out of the casting.


Now you know
Dave ----

 

Does anyone have any helpful tips for getting it out? I've been trying for 3 days straight, a few hours a day, and I can't get the stupid thing to budge. Ive tried everything from prying it out with a flathead screwdriver to grabbing it with a pair of curved needle nose and trying to wiggle it out but it isn't moving at all

 

Drive it in and turn it sideways to pull out ...

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

I just changed them all in my ranger. The easiest for me was to drill a hole near the edge and run a sheetmetal screw into the hole. I then took a claw hammer and pried it out, it would flip around sideways. I then took vise grips and pulled them out.

If you are going to the store and buy a new one, you had better tell them freeze plug or expansion plug. They are going to give you a weird look if you ask for a casting plug.

 

Is this plug one on the side of the engine, or in back of the head?

 

The back of the head

 

That's the hardest one to get to. I've not had to do one of those while it's in the truck. I picked up a good used head a while back, and that was replaced regardless of if it showed leakage - which it didn't.

Getting it off in the truck shouldn't be too bad, but getting another one seated correctly will be much harder, unless someone here has a special trick to doing it.

 

The couple that rusted out on my ranger were very difficult to get to. Way up on either side underneath the exhaust manifolds. The only way I could get a new one in place was to use those rubber style plugs. But one of them popped out twice on me, once leaving me stranded. So I ended up having to pull the engine and that's when I replaced all of them.

Glad I pulled the engine, I have one on the back of the engine inside the bellhousing, and it was seeping also.

 

They look at you weird asking for a doughnut gasket!

"I need rear window Wiper for a 2011 Escape" the Reply?
"what size engine?"

 

Have you lookup any parts on line?
Before you can it wants to know make, model, motor size & sometimes trany before you can look for parts.
Dave ----

 

That's how they organize all the data on the backend that makes all that stuff work, makes perfect sense to me.

 

Sure, but remember the days when the parts guy knew is job and could pick out you needed .... and it fit?
All this computer "total" dependency IS going to bite us in the a**!
At my Fathers parts store, a new employee could not do parts look-up until he stocked the complete store twice and knew what thing were and how they functioned before he could help a customer...

 

Society is changing, it is an inevitable part of evolution.