Here's the story line...

83 302 rebuilt in 99, ran two days, sat in storage for nearly 10 years, dropped into my 79 and up and running as of mid January. Had lifters put in and she's doing great, except for the antifreeze leak I just can't find! It's pooling on top of the timing cover but it's an after market timing cover that's closed off. Anyway, had it in Meineke to check on a warped rotor that's been acting warped way since the day they put it on and the guy called me out there to point out that I've got an antifreeze leak *I know that* but with her up on the lift it was easier to see that some of it's coming from what appears to be a freeze plug in the front of the head.... *didn't know there was one there*

I don't have time or place to pull the motor again and I know better than to just replace the one. How much is a reasonable price to expect to pay to have this done at a shop vs how much you pay to do it yourself? The shop I intend to use unless I just can't afford it is a bit overpriced so I'll uh, round up from whatever figures any of y'all may have encountered dealing with the same thing. I've seen what's come out of his shop and haven't heard any bad stories. That's why he can get the prices he charges, because he's good. My basic idea is to take it in, tell him where I think it's coming from and see where we go from there but after seeing it, I'm convinced it's that stupid plug which aggravates me no end!

I did a search and I've read how you do it and it sounds pretty easy except for getting clearance to reach them all. Is that the biggest problem?

 

just do the one thats leaking... why do them all...?

 

Cuz if one's bad, they could all be bad because they've all been through the same thing. I'm also not going to end up with crap like my dad has had all my life by not taking care of it. I refuse to half butt anything when I can do otherwise. It's the can part I'm worried about. I've had this problem in another one before that belonged to my dad and the shop he took it too told him the same thing and he tried to argue with him about it. I've also done a search on here and saw stories from people who started out trying to do just one and then another wld go and so on and so forth. It just makes sense for the long run even if it hurts in the short run....