When it rains it pours

[soth122003]

Well here we go. I have a leak on one of my freeze plugs (the hard one to get to, bottom aft under the oil filter). Now I've had this leak for years and it was a minor inconvenience. Leaked about 1 gallon of water every 2-3 weeks and only while parked and not driving. So being as I'm old and retired (read lazy and no initiative) and since I only use water in the radiator for coolant and the car runs at about 170 degrees all the time, never really had the gumption to fix it.

 

Now I am sure a lot of you fine mopar fans out there like to watch our you tube star and movie mogul Keithb (yes Keith I blame you for the motivation), Well his last video was... you guessed it, changing a freeze plug. Now some of the worst things you will ever hear is 

1. Son, Have I got a great job for you!

2. When the boss comes out and says "You know I've been thinking..."

3. When you watch a video and think, that doesn't look to hard.

 

So yesterday I pull the oil filter. Move the plug wire holder out of the way. Drill out the freeze plug and pop it out and there was a wall of crap keeping it from leaking. The crud was damp but not letting water flow through. Gotta scribe and poked it through and whoosh out comes about 3 gallons of water. Got the hose, flushed it out and used a wire wheel to clean it up. Put the new freeze plug in with a little permatex to help seal it and used my air hammer to tap it into place. Now being that I used the hose and pick tool to flush and get rid of the crap that built up under the number six piston, I'm feeling pretty damn good about my self (YAY ME). Yeah Right, things can never be that simple. I fill the rad and engine with water and I go to check for leaks. And what to my wondering eyes did appear A LEAK!!! 

 

Under the freeze plug about 1/4" and 1" aft water was leaking. Not a lot but enough. Looking at the way the water ran down before the plug change it looked like the plug was leaking and running down about 1/4" and following the engine casting line along the block. NOOO. Wasn't that way at all, the block was cracked. 

 

So today, Monday, was spent running the engine up to temp (40 minutes) and using the block sealer to seal it from the inside (another 40 minutes) and the leak was reduced to a weep. Drained the water per instructions and jacked up the back end of the car to get the water clear of the cracked area. Tomorrow will be cleaning the cracked area and using JB weld (Since you can't weld cast iron) to seal it from the outside. The saving grace of all this is it is a minor problem and at least it is not a cracked block in the upper piston area. It also is not cracked into the oil galleys, both which would require an engine change. So Keith, from the bottom of my aching legs to the width of my sore back and top of my stiff and bruised shoulders, Thank you for motivating me to do a simple job that turned into a head ache. 

 

The bright side of all this is the weather here in Florida is warm and sunny and with a little introspection the job needed to be done anyway. So for all you mopar fans out there feel free to comment, make fun of, offer alternative suggestions I may or may not take, sympathize, or whatever to my tale of woe in the latest adventures of "MOPAR MADNESS". (Said with words echoing and thunder and lightning crashing).

 

Joe Lee

[Bryan]

Did you have any unusual cold weather during the Winter?

[keithb7]

Somehow I feel partially responsible. Lol. 

[Booger]

thats awesome

[RobertKB]

I would recommend using anti-freeze after work is done, not straight water. It contains a lubricant to help the water pump and helps prevent rusting inside the block which may have aided the initial problem. If leak is fixed, no loss of coolant. 

[plymouthcranbrook]

I might be tempted to add some Bar’s leak even though I usually won’t put it into a modern car here it might help.  If the JB weld doesn’t  hold of course.

[soth122003]

7 hours ago, Bryan said:

Did you have any unusual cold weather during the Winter?

I think it was like this when I bought it. But during the winter I usually add some anti-freeze to the block.

 

4 hours ago, Booger said:

thats awesome

Didn't feel awesome when I found out. Took a few hours to figure out what to do, and a few days to get over it.

 

3 hours ago, plymouthcranbrook said:

I might be tempted to add some Bar’s leak even though I usually won’t put it into a modern car here it might help.

The block seal I used has the glass silicate in it. And it did slow/maybe stop the leak. It takes about 12 hours to completely cure which was about 5am this morning. I'll clean the area and JB Weld  it today.

 

5 hours ago, keithb7 said:

Somehow I feel partially responsible. Lol. 

Thanks for the sympathy LOL, but I really do enjoy your videos a lot.

[desoto1939]

also suggest that you go to a good auto store get a pint of their GUNK water pump lubricate and anti rusting fluid. This was an items that you would put into the radiator every fall to help keep the anti rusting agents active int he cast iron block.  Antifreeze over time loses it antirusting agents so you need to keep them up as long as possible.

 

I add a pint every fall just after going to the Hershey Swap meet.

 

Rich Hartung

desoto1939@aol.com

[soth122003]

Thanks for the suggestion Rich. Usually didn't worry about the anti-freeze going bad as it would leak out over a few month period and be back to water by spring. I usually flushed the cooling system about once a year with vinegar to keep the block clean from scale, rust and calcium build up. Now that it will be fixed, have to follow up with that.

 

Joe Lee

[T120]

Back in the day,this product might have been recommended..?

[harmony]

18 hours ago, soth122003 said:

Well here we go. I have a leak on one of my freeze plugs (the hard one to get to, bottom aft under the oil filter). Now I've had this leak for years and it was a minor inconvenience. Leaked about 1 gallon of water every 2-3 weeks and only while parked and not driving. So being as I'm old and retired (read lazy and no initiative) and since I only use water in the radiator for coolant and the car runs at about 170 degrees all the time, never really had the gumption to fix it.

 

Now I am sure a lot of you fine mopar fans out there like to watch our you tube star and movie mogul Keithb (yes Keith I blame you for the motivation), Well his last video was... you guessed it, changing a freeze plug. Now some of the worst things you will ever hear is 

1. Son, Have I got a great job for you!

2. When the boss comes out and says "You know I've been thinking..."

3. When you watch a video and think, that doesn't look to hard.

 

So yesterday I pull the oil filter. Move the plug wire holder out of the way. Drill out the freeze plug and pop it out and there was a wall of crap keeping it from leaking. The crud was damp but not letting water flow through. Gotta scribe and poked it through and whoosh out comes about 3 gallons of water. Got the hose, flushed it out and used a wire wheel to clean it up. Put the new freeze plug in with a little permatex to help seal it and used my air hammer to tap it into place. Now being that I used the hose and pick tool to flush and get rid of the crap that built up under the number six piston, I'm feeling pretty damn good about my self (YAY ME). Yeah Right, things can never be that simple. I fill the rad and engine with water and I go to check for leaks. And what to my wondering eyes did appear A LEAK!!! 

 

Under the freeze plug about 1/4" and 1" aft water was leaking. Not a lot but enough. Looking at the way the water ran down before the plug change it looked like the plug was leaking and running down about 1/4" and following the engine casting line along the block. NOOO. Wasn't that way at all, the block was cracked. 

 

So today, Monday, was spent running the engine up to temp (40 minutes) and using the block sealer to seal it from the inside (another 40 minutes) and the leak was reduced to a weep. Drained the water per instructions and jacked up the back end of the car to get the water clear of the cracked area. Tomorrow will be cleaning the cracked area and using JB weld (Since you can't weld cast iron) to seal it from the outside. The saving grace of all this is it is a minor problem and at least it is not a cracked block in the upper piston area. It also is not cracked into the oil galleys, both which would require an engine change. So Keith, from the bottom of my aching legs to the width of my sore back and top of my stiff and bruised shoulders, Thank you for motivating me to do a simple job that turned into a head ache. 

 

The bright side of all this is the weather here in Florida is warm and sunny and with a little introspection the job needed to be done anyway. So for all you mopar fans out there feel free to comment, make fun of, offer alternative suggestions I may or may not take, sympathize, or whatever to my tale of woe in the latest adventures of "MOPAR MADNESS". (Said with words echoing and thunder and lightning crashing).

 

Joe Lee

Hopefully everything works out for you.  But just to add some potential optimism,  Cast iron can be welded.  One of my boat engines (33 years old) I had a crack in the manifold ( wet exhaust) . I had a professional fabricator who works at a high end boatyard tig weld it.  He ordered in some special tig rods to do the job.  Two years later and it's doing just fine.  A couple weeks ago I saw some rusty seepage coming out of a similar wet exhaust fitting on my Genset.  This time I tried it myself.  Using my mig welder (no gas) turned down as low as it would go and used it like I was butt joining body steel.  I carved out a section about the size of a lima bean first, before I got back to bright coloured casting.  It took about 30-40 minutes to gradually fill it, but it's back on the boat and looking good, doing its job and no sign of leaks.  

Edited April 28, 2022 by harmony

[soth122003]

Day 2. Well cleaned up the area with a wire wheel and then tried to take some pics. The 1st pic nearly gave me a stroke. Looking at the pic, it looks like the Grand Canyon, but the closeness and no perspective for location or size cranked up the stress. I tried taking at least 50 more pics, but I could not get another pic of the crack. (no geezer jokes about being naked in the bathroom either) 

 

I then tried my borescope, but sunlight on an LCD screen and trying to hold it in place by the crack and then looking at the screen, needed a third arm and a second tongue to hold steady. It took me over an hour to realize I had inspection mirrors and try that. When I saw what the mirrors reveled my heartrate went back to normal and my anxiety passed.

 

In the 2nd pic the area cleaned is about the length of the crack(circled in red and where the leaking occurred is in yellow. The 3rd pic shows the leaking part of the crack. the rest of the crack looks like a hair line fracture. All of the crack got JB Weld and the leaking area got packed in and smoothed over. Tomorrow will be fill and check for leaks then re-assemble everything, get the exhaust leak fixed and drive to my dads house next weekend.