I have a '96 Taurus with a leaking freeze plug I need to change. I had the same one changed on a '98 I had & it cost me close to $300. It's on a 3.0 single cam (not DOHC) motor, it's the freeze plug between the engine & transmission nearest the transmission. Does anyone have experience with this & can tell me typically what it involves or an easy way to do it? Any & all ideas & suggestions appriciated.
Frank
You're in trouble man...I have done MANY cooling system recalls on those, and unless you have a lift to get it WAY up off the ground...you're in trouble. You have to remove the exhaust collector crosspipe (runs from both manifolds to the downstream...also has the cats in it.) and then have a 3' pipe to tap it sideways and pull it out. (unless you just get the nerve to pull the motor and trans out the bottom...ya right)
Sorry man...
Kenn
Thanks for the info, Kenn. I bought this car for $500 recently with a blown head gasket. It's in excellent condition. The coolant tank had a crack in it the car had overheated & blew the head gasket. At the salvage yard all the coolant tanks were gone, I guess these have a tendency to crack. They even sell new ones on E-Bay.
I had the heads shaved & valves ground then put it back together to find a leaking freeze plug, also a common problem on the '96 Taurus with a 3.0 motor. I just keep thinking how easy it would have been to unbolt the tranny & pull the block out when I had the heads off and change ALL the freeze plugs.
What I'm looking at doing right now is: I can reach around from the topside transmission end on the engine & feel the freeze plug, I'm looking at removing the rear exaust manifold driving a chisel, punch, or screwdriver into the freeze plug & prying it out.
To replace the freeze plug there are the rubber plug things, I've heard they tend to pop out sometimes. I thought about using something ( maybe silicone gasket sealer) to "glue" it in. I've heard of putting in a block heater & not using it to heat just because they are easy to put in. An idea I had was to drill a hole in the center of the freeze plug, weld a piece of steel to a 3/8" x 1 1/2" bolt to form a T (like the ones that hold the block heaters in) put a sizable washer in the cup of the freeze plug so I don't distort it & tighten the bolt to "press" it in. I would also use some silicone under the washer to seal it. I'm replacing the steel plug with a brass one. At this point I'm pretty set on trying this. at the worst I would be out the cost of the freeze plug and some time. If it doesn't work I'll pry the plug back out & take the car to a shop or consider pulling the motor to change all of them with brass ones. If the planets & stars align themselves properly I'll be able to try it this weekend. Any imput on this is appriciated.
Frank
Btw the car runs great ( for a few minutes at a time) after the head rebuild & gasket change
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