302 from a 71, steady drip of coolant, coming from area of the rear seal. Most likely? How bad to keep driving...

Any help appreciated!

 

are you sure its not coming from the back of the intake at the coolant crossover.
has it been overheated? could be a head gasket.

but i'm thinking its a corroded freezeplug most likely,
just be carefull using stopleak products, they can plug the flow of collant to areas. just replace freeze plug.

make sure its not coming from the front of the motor, and just trailing down to the back. could be waterpump gasket.

 

freeze plug .99 cents labor more than .99

 

I agree with jm ray Probably freeze plug in between motor and trans can be done in an afternoon if you arent too bad with a good set of tools

 

Thanks for helping.. I did cheat and use Bars stop leak, I had to get to work, I need to fix it now... I saw no coolant anywhere except at the flat cover on the front of the auto trans. Is there a freeze plug on the back of the engine? Pull the C4? Is there room to tap in a std plug back there?

Thanks!

 

the one on the left is probably what you have installed, try to get one with more depth, it may even bottom out. its a very tough job with the motor in. and yes its between your motor and tranny. you do have others, you might want to check them while your at it, if memory serves correct they are under your exhaust manifold/above oil pan. good luck on this, i hate freeze plugs.

 

Always a good idea to install the brass plugs...they don't rust.

 

There are no freeze plugs on the back of a small block Ford, however there are freeze plugs on the front and back of each cylinder head and I suspect that is where your problem lies. It would be better to take it apart and do it right instead of trying to do it half-A$$ed cause it will likely just lead to more problems.

 

are you sure? what about the 289?
i know for sure the 351's have em in the back.

 

Yes, I'm sure as I just looked at the back of two SBF engines that I have (289 & 302) and there are no freeze plugs in the back of the block except for the two on the back of the cylinder heads. The 260 through 302 all share the same block configuration, now a 351W does share similar characteristics although it has an increased deck height making the stroke longer, however I don't know whether or not it has freeze plugs in the rear of the block as I haven't seen the back of one for several years and my memory isn't as good as it use to be!

 

The one "freeze plug" that I see on the back is large and is actually the camshaft rear bearing bore plug. Then there are 3 threaded plugs - 1/4" pipe - that are probably oil passages.

 

i've got an old 289 at the junk yard i work at, and i could swear it had a rear freeze plug... but maybe i'm insane, i'm gonna look monday though.
i think i'm thinking of what steve was discribing...

 

Did the bars leak stop the drip? If so, maybe leave it alone, it will come back when it wants to?
or
Rent/beg/borrow a radiator pressure tester and pump up the system so that you can find where the coolant is coming from! Otherwise you are just guessing.

 

Skot, that's not a freeze plug in that picture it's the plug for the camshaft rear journal and above that are two pipe plugs that go through to the oil passage for the lifters so that you can clean them.

 

oh yeah i thought that, i was posting that in regards to steve.
i think thats what i was thinking was a freeze plug from my memory. (did that make since? lol)
i guess i was wrong lol. thanks john for smacking my brain back into gear