Tips for removing freeze plugs?

If one was bad maybe more in your future.

 

Rubber expansion plugs work in a clinch if it's to tight to hammer one in..do they still make them?

 

Any freeze relief that MAY occur is purely incidental to the actual purpose of the core plugs.

Ray

 

Yes, pretty sure..Napa and a few others have better ones, IMO..Copper plated metal that you slide in easily after coating bore with good sealant and tighten a center nut [two turns] to expand; pretty secure and no need for room to swing hammer..

 

Gawd...if it takes 6 years to remove a frost plug...hate to think how long it might take to build a hotrod

 

You are correct. I worked in a foundry that made SBC and other castings. The holes in the side of the block actually served two functions, they provided a way for the spent core sand to be removed during the shakeout process and it held the water jacket core in place during the pour. Lastly some were used to vent gases from the casting, but not all holes were used for that, usually the vents were in the cope (upper) mold not the drag (lower) where the water jacket cores nested into the mold.

 

My brother many moons ago had plain water in his truck with the SBC and it froze up one night in November. The next morning he comes out and looks, 2 freeze plugs sitting on the crossmember. The block cracked by the fuel pump boss. So we pop in 2 expandable plugs, add AF and water mix. The crack seeped for a short while and closed up. Never leaked after that.

 

One of my customers wanted to look at his flex plate (he thought it was cracked) so he unbolted the converter to slide it back. Turns out the flexplate was OK, so he put it back together but couldn't find one of the converter bolts - put a replacement bolt in and a little later found out where it was when it caught between the flexplate and one of the rear plugs in his SBC, knocking the plug out and dumping all the coolant on the street.

 

Hammer time & a screw driver,it's a pretty simple job. HRP

 

Frigging amazing,! you dug up a thread with the last post being on March 28, 2016 to throw that out.
Still GENTLY tapping them in at the bottom with a hammer and punch so as not to hit the cylinder casting and then pulling them out with a pair of channel locks turned to work as you would pull a nail with a claw hammer has worked well for me for years.

 

March 28 2010...

 

I had a 1/2" welsh plug to remove. The procedure for removing them is different. They are center drilled and a large easy out is screwed in until the welsh plug spins and can be pulled out

 

Another ditto. Done it this way literally hundreds of times.

 

really...

 

Down here, they have always been called frost plugs, so I thought they were all about the freeze thing.
Never realized they were core plugs for casting.
You learn something new everyday here.

 

One of those claw hammer type pry bars is the easiest way I know of . Knock the cup in turn it 90 degrees hook the lip with the claw and pry it out.

 

I've rebuilt a dozen engines and the plugs have always come out easy with hitting one corner and the other corner comes up and you just pull it out with some channel locks. I now have a sbc on the stand that the side plugs will not come out or even move. I tried hitting them with a socket to knock them in, hitting the corner and also using a slide hammer and still have not been able to move or loosen any of them. I think someone must have used lock tight or something to lock them in place. I've hit them so hard, I worried about cracking the block. I haven't messed with the engine in awhile but the plan is to use a hole saw to cut out the center and split the outer ring where it attaches to the bock and remove the outer ring in two or three pieces.