I forgot to drain the water out of the old 66 and yep it got cold, too cold. I went out to the shop and there was a puddle of water under the truck. So I get under the truck and look to see where the water is coming from and it appears to be coming from the middle freeze plug on the right side which is directly behind the motor mount. Hopefully that is the only place that is leaking and hopefully I don't have a cracked block. How hard is it to replace freeze plugs? I've never had to replace any before. I still can't believe I forgot to drain it. Oh well.

 

Hey Paw Paw, there is a a tool that is essentially a rod with a wobbly end on it (may be borrowed from the auto parts places) and you can install the new freeze plug with it. I would still remove the mount entirely, by jacking the motor up on that side after removing the motor mount nut, then remove the mount. Be careful to not push the old freeze plug into the water jacket. Use new brass plugs with sealant on them. Be sure to check ALL of the other plugs to make sure they didn't start to push out as well. Good luck, Russ.

 

I just did this on my 83 truck. After trying to tap in the new plugs to no avail... I went with the rubber ones. They have a bolt and washer through the middle of the rubber. Stick it in the hole and snug up the bolt. No more leaks. I did all 6 in about an hour and a half. I also undid my exhaust manifolds to get more lift and space to work. Pulling the motor mounts is also a plus. I did both. I have a few thousand miles on it now.

 

Thanks guys. Hopefully that is all the damage it did.

 

Once you get her all sealed up again, you really don't want to be using water for coolant, no matter what the freeze risks are. Water has a lower boiling point than an antifreeze mixture, for one thing. But the biggest issue is corrosion. I have pulled frost plugs out and had to scoop the pasty rust out with a spoon. I had the engine out of an El Camino a few years ago where the accumulation was halfway up the block down both sides. And it's really hard to get it all out when it reaches that point. Then what happens is that the remaining rust eats away at the steel frost plugs and you're replacing them every two years. That's why they started selling brass ones. For those neglected cooling systems that could no longer use steel ones.

And your antifreeze should be changed every couple of years. It doesn't look bad, but it loses it's corrosion resistance after a couple of years. The manufacturers say two years for regular glycol and 5 years for Dexcool, but I've found you can usually go a year or two beyond that. If you wait until your antifreeze turns that brown green, it's way too late.

Steve g

 

Steve you are absolutely right about the water vs coolant and normally I wouldn't think about putting water in it but this has been a project and we have working on the engine and replacing parts and so forth so it was a lot easier to use water than trying to catch antifreeze. Unfortunately the cold weather caught me and I forgot. When it is ready, antifreeze will be used.