Well I have a freeze plug (front passenger side) leaking and I need to swap it. I've searched around a good bit and found almost no info on doing this. I was able to pop the old plug out with no issues and measured it with a caliper. Measured out to almost exactly 1.5". Most parts stores 1.5" plugs are either deeper or shallower than the plug that came out but found an almost exact match at a local machine shop. Had to pull the motor mount to make more room in there and went to pop the new one in but I've been unsuccessful at getting it to go in square. After fooling with it for hours, I'm thinking that it needs to be a metric plug. The new one is about .01" larger than the original even though it is a 1.5" plug. The machine shop was closed today so I went to bumper to bumper and the guy helped me find a couple plugs that are the same exact diameter but all they had were either too deep or too shallow.

My questions are... what are the implications of installing a freeze plug that is not the right depth? Can I put the deep (or shallow) one in and go with it? Or should I wait til Monday and try to get one from Ford? Anybody know the specs on these freeze plugs or have a part number for it? Also, has anybody tried installing one with the motor in the truck? So far, it's been a real pain in the ***. Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated.

 

Put your new plug in the freezer for a couple of hours then when you are react to install heat the area around the plug hole with a hair dryer torch or heat gun. The hole will expand and plug will shrink in freezer. Hold it with a magnet it should slip right into place. Good luck.

 

Got it in. Thanks for the help