Why cant i get my soft plugs to stay in

[jarrodsexploder]

I have a 91 Explorer and I cant seem to get my soft plugs to stay in. I took it to a shop and they put the new ones in but it blew them again on the way home. Please help college student running out of ideas.

 

[410Fortune]

soft plugs=?


spark plugs?

 

[PTBishop]

get the rubber universal ones. the ones you have to tighten in order for them to stay, chances are your block is rusty where the soft plug needs to be. measure the size of the plug, im sure you already know and get the universal rubber ones, any parts store has them

 

[jimbo74]

oh freeze plugs?

 

[PTBishop]

.

 

[PTBishop]

yeah, they are actually not suppose to be called freeze plugs....the reason they are called freeze plugs is because sometimes they pop out instead of a block cracking when water freezes (backin the days of running just water in an engine). it is a term that needs to go away, haha, but they are soft plugs. that is the correct term. but everyone knows them as freeze plugs

 

[Maniak]

I just replaced one of those plugs (passenger side). It had started to leak (rust pinhole)..

When I went to Autozone and Checker (Kragen), all they had were the rubber things..

I went to Merles (parts store that caters to shops, not consumers) and they had a individual ones in the "deep" style. The set they had were shallow. I believe the parts were made by dorman (orange looking box).. I got the deep ones, and I got it in and no problems since.. I actually had more problems taking the old one out (it went into to block instead of rotating out like normal)..

~Mark

 

[mrboyle]

Unless the plug was not installed properly, there is no way one can just "fall out." My guess would be the shop that did the work either did not install the plug completly or they did not use the correct size plug. If it were me I would contact the shop and give them the option of fixing it correctly (including paying to have your X towed back to the shop) or refund your money and take it somewhere else.

 

[90ranajo]

yeah, they are actually not suppose to be called freeze plugs....the reason they are called freeze plugs is because sometimes they pop out instead of a block cracking when water freezes (backin the days of running just water in an engine). it is a term that needs to go away, haha, but they are soft plugs. that is the correct term. but everyone knows them as freeze plugs

Actually I believe the more correct term for them is casting plugs. As it is through those holes that they clean out all the sand casting media from.

Also have you checked you coolant system pressures?

 

[old mechanic]

yeah, they are actually not suppose to be called freeze plugs....the reason they are called freeze plugs is because sometimes they pop out instead of a block cracking when water freezes (backin the days of running just water in an engine). it is a term that needs to go away, haha, but they are soft plugs. that is the correct term. but everyone knows them as freeze plugs

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Hummm. Why wouldn't the correct term be freeze plugs? Thats what they are, freeze plugs and they are still listed as freeze plugs on all the auto parts stores sites that I know of. The only soft plugs I ever heard about was the medical soft plugs. Freeze plugs allow the expansion of the liquid in a frozen block so it will not break the block. So why wouldn't they be called freeze plugs? Back in the day we still had freezing weather and the block still had to be protected. We used alcohol instead of ethylene glyco. The alcohol protected fine but it would boil away and we had to keep adding alcohol. EXPENSIVE. When they came out with ethylene glyco they named it "permanent antifreeze" because it did not boil away.
BTW: What "back in the days" are you talking about when they ran just water in them?

 

[PTBishop]

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Hummm. Why wouldn't the correct term be freeze plugs? Thats what they are, freeze plugs and they are still listed as freeze plugs on all the auto parts stores sites that I know of. The only soft plugs I ever heard about was the medical soft plugs. Freeze plugs allow the expansion of the liquid in a frozen block so it will not break the block. So why wouldn't they be called freeze plugs? Back in the day we still had freezing weather and the block still had to be protected. We used alcohol instead of ethylene glyco. The alcohol protected fine but it would boil away and we had to keep adding alcohol. EXPENSIVE. When they came out with ethylene glyco they named it "permanent antifreeze" because it did not boil away.
BTW: What "back in the days" are you talking about when they ran just water in them?

they dont always pop out when the liquid freezes. sometimes you would get lucky, but not always. soft plugs and i do agree with the other post above you, casting plugs are more approiate of a name.

 

[Crumm]

I actually had more problems taking the old one out (it went into to block instead of rotating out like normal)..

~Mark

Did you get it out? If you left it in did it cause any future problems?

I installed a block heater this morning but my freeze plug did the same thing yours did. I am not too excited about disassembling the whole engine just to get it out so it is there to stay. Just wondering if it will plug anything up.

 

[Maniak]

I did get it out.. I had to use needle nosed vice grips to grab it and pull it out (wasn't easy).

From what I have heard, leaving it in can make a hotspot in the block.

~Mark

 

[billz260]

I had the same problem w/ the rubber replacment plug, it lasted maybe 2 or 3k miles and worked it's way out of the block. Luckily it was nice out, had the windows down and a guy at a stop light told me I was loosing vast amounts of coolant! DOH!

When I replaced it again, I noticed the rubber part was too deep and was not allowing the metal washer to sit against the block when pushed all the way in. I cut the rubber plug almost in half depth wise, so the washer sat flush w/ the block. Have been over 10k miles w/ no problems.