This weekend, I noticed a small anti freeze leak on my driveway, so I took it to the local repair shop today. I just figured it was ruptured coolant line or something and expected to be out of there in no time. WRONG! the tech tells me that the freeze plugs on both sides of the engine are bad, and the two between the trans and the engine are bad as well, if not close to it. They said that they have to pull the engine out to get to the plugs all to the sum of $1300. My car only has 61000 miles on it. Is freeze plug failure normal at this milage? And there was only a small drop of coolant on the ground too, only about the size of a penny. Is it likely that all the freeze plugs are bad?
And I know that pulling the engine out of any car is no easy task either, but does $1200 for this seem like a reasonable price?

 

ive never heard of them failing.....ever you should check it out yourself

 

Pulled the engine out of my 88 last winter. Removed a freeze plug, though I'd replace them all, and it was brass. No corrosion at all on this one. I'd sure crawl under there and check before spending that amount of money. They are tough to get to in the car for sure though.

 

I'd put some Missouri Mule in it. See if that fixes it.

 

$1300 to pull the engine and add freeze plugs? I wonder how much there pay you to pull the engine cause freeze plugs arent that much money at all. I dont know what the usual price for something like that is but seems pretty outrageous to me. You could buy a whole new car for that much.

 

The freeze plugs themselves only cost something like $50. The rest is all labor. They said it's a 14 hour job to pull the engine.

I read that if a car sits for a while, the anti-freeze will begin to corrode the freeze plugs. Is this correct? Because it just so happens that the car was stored for aprox two years before I bought it.

I also checked around for better prices at other shops. They all wanted $1200-1300 to do it.

And it's definitly leaking from the freeze plugs. I got under it today and saw it leaking out with quite a bit more coolant on the ground. I'm taking it in to have it done tomorrow. This sucks.

 

Just so you know, thay are actually core plugs; where the casting sand was removed from the block. Sometimes they fall out when a block freezes but that is not why they are there.

If you can see it, you can repalace it. Are they all leaking or just the one? you may well be able to get away with replacing just the leaking one(s).

 

well put, if you wanna be a real cheap prik tho, you can buy those block heaters for less than 50 buks each. just destroy those freezeplugs to get them out and you the block heaters have an O-ring seal and have a backing plate to screw and tighten down to.

*EDIT* excuse me, up in canada they are 50 buks, in the states they are 25. sorry for the mixup

 

Or you could get replacement brass cup plugs for a few cents each, or replacement rubber expansion plugs for a dollar or two each.

 

perhaps you could also quote me the price of the tools necessary to insall those things, or perhaps you could quote the shops labour hours and overhead costs?

i can quote you the all those with the block heaters, wrench, borrow a friendslabour, few hours, overhead none

 

tools to install freeze plugs? Got a hammer and a socket? Some pliers or a big screwdriver, and the same hammer will take 'em out.

$1300 to re& re a motor is pretty outragous. Well, TPI maybe, it's got more wires.
I'd just clean it up real good and try to goop on some epoxy of some kind. Those plugs don't corrode and rust and have holes in them or anything like that, perhaps at the sealing surfaces they're leaking, but epoxy or something can save that.
Yea, brass (normal) freeze plugs are about $6 a set. $50 for materials better well include all the coolant, and some air freshners

 

It's the same process to replace a freeze plug as it is to install a block heater.

 

since we're on the topic, i'm guessing most people who use a block heater have a single heating coil in a single freeze plug hole. Has anyone installed more than one? Say, one on each side of the block, wired them together?

 

I don't see any reason why you couldn't. I don't know if it would be necessary, though.

 

If you can see them leaking, you can replace them while the engine is in the car. Drive a screw driver in them, then pull it out with channel locks. Then drive the new ones in with a socket and hammer.

Total cost with fluid, maybe $20

Or you can spend $1300 for someone to potentially screw something up. People take corners when removing an engine sometimes. Hell, they may replace them while in the car and charge you for an engine removal. It is your call. If you were here, I would do it for free.

 

Don't forget there are plugs hiding behind the motor mounts on each side. Those can't be replaced so easily with the engine in the car. At least not with another cup type plug, it would probably have to be a rubber expansion plug

 

This is true, however, I would recommend replacing the leaking ones, and I would not remove the motor. Now if this was my 88 carbed firebird. I could have the motor out with tranny within an Hour from a dead rest. In that case I would. But... it has no emissions, or massive harness.. or silly things in the way. On my formula... I would do it while the engine was in the car. Expect a few hours. And brush up on some new cuss words. Beats losing $1300

 

There's no harm with replacing just the leaking one(s), but if they're steel plugs then by the time the first one corrodes enough to start leaking the others usually aren't far behind.

 

I do not understand why all of them aren't brass. It is stupid, I think the person who came up with that idea was the guy who came up with the electric supercharger...

 

Steel is cheaper than brass.

 

It is funny because the brass ones are like $20 a set, I think at one time they even sold them the dollar store.

 

my set was ~$8 (brass) from summit...

I was thinking a heater in each side of the block, for more even heating. When it's -30 sorta thing. I wasn't sure how much heat a regular block heater put out anyway.
oh well, no issue, my car is parked once the snow flies anyway. No block heater(s) for me.

 

My 82 1500 had a 305 in it that would go through freeze plugs right and left (old engine). I never had to take the engine out to put a new one in. For $1300 You can have the Engine taken out, rebuilt from the ground up, and reinstalled with new freeze plugs and the works lol.

 

Dont feel bad my 88 Iroc has about 25,000 - 30,000 miles, and i have a bad freeze plug leak. If i step on the gass hard after it has warmed up it blows big white clouds of smoke. When i park it, it leaks all over the ground. I can tell if it is just one or more. I an going to start by replacing the one i can see without pulling the motor for now. If that does not fix it, I will have to pull it. Sucks, the price we have to pay to play.........

 

It is faster and less expencive if they were to pull the trans all the freeze plug's are easy to get too from that point.