A blown Freeze-plug?? Of course it can, I think it probably happened to me this past weekend. I was takin a buddy for a ride, hammerin on it up to 6500 + RPMS & all of a sudden i noticed a cloud of smoke chasing me. The car still ran fine, until I realized my temp gauge climbing. I made it off the freeway and just a couple of blocks from my house before I noticed the temp gauge rising near the red, so I pulled over & shut er down on a side street. Just blocks away from my home, I run home & grab a gallon of Antifreeze, poured it in. Then after it cooled down enough & then drove it home, straight into the garage. Well, now its up on jack stands. I checked the oil, oil looks just like it should look. I fired it up & it ran fine with no sputtering or anything, no white smoke blowing out the tailpipes. I pour water into the empty radiator, its dripping on the floor from an unidentified source just as fast as I pour it in. I removed the plastic shroud covering the torque converter & was bombarded by several drips & streams of water. From your experiences, do you think this is a Freeze Plug problem? Cracked Block? Head Gasket? Busted hose somewhere, but where? I know its a general question, without lookin at it it may be tough to diagnose, but in your thoughts by my description, what do you think? I'm still unable to identify the origin, I can only say its behind the motor, dripping all over from between the transmission & Motor. Help please! Thanks.

 

Yup, sounds like a rusted-through freeze plug. Pretty common.

"Racing" won't "cause" a freeze plug to fail, except to the extent that a sudden blast of high-speed water flow might flush off the last flake of rust that was holding the water in.

May I suggest that you pull the motor and change ALL of them, using BRASS ones. Otherwise, you will go through whatever hassles and gyrations doing this ONE, and next week, the next identical one having been subjected to identical conditions for an identical length of time, will fail identically. Since pulling the motor out of one of these cars is FAR FAR easier than laying up under one trying to chnage those things out, ESPECIALLY doing that 2 or 3 times FIRST before getting a clue and THEN pulling the motor and doing them all, it would make alot more sense to just bite the bullet and plan on doing that UP FRONT; it will save you money, trouble, and time in the long run.

 

it probably is a freeze plug but you can use this dye and a blacklight to find out the source. I forgot what it's called but the dye will glow from the light

 

If I were to take a guess based on your statement I'd have to say that it's a cracked radiator tank. I've replaced the crappy plastic radiator tanks on my car about 3 times in 10-15 yrs.

 

if it's coming out from under the radiator then ya it's the radiator, but I think he would have noticed that.

 

I hope you didn't blow the welds on the intake... Nah, it really does sound like a freeze plug to me. Happend on our old dodge van. Not from racing though. It is possible.

 

Yah, its definitely coming from the rear of the motor. Nothing realy in front. The car only has now 47,000 ORIGINAL miles on it, being the stock block & crank, but very well abused. I have the TPIS Mini-ram & ZZ409 cam, trickflow heads which allows such high RPMS on the stock crank & pistons. That may be best just to pull the motor & identify from there. While its out, maybe throw in a stroker kit or somethin!! Thanks for all your input!

 

No wonder. That's why it rusted through, right there.

The rest aren't far behind... Believe it. In fact, when you pull the motor and look at them, you may even find that others have been weeping through porosity.