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B23 freeze plug; bad machining?

Tfrasca

Tfrasca

Active member
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Location
Ben Lomond, CA
I had a freeze plug pop out of my B23ft the other day. We put new ones in when I had the block cleaned. We used black "aviation sealant" (I think Permatex #2 or some equivalent), and dimpled the middle of the plugs with a ball peen hammer.

They have all held well at much higher coolant pressures, since I used to have a 16psi cap on the car. It is now only 7psi, but I still lost a plug at 6k rpm. I don't suspect a head gasket failure.

Anyway, today I got around to cleaning up the freeze plug hole to pop a new one in, and noticed what looks like some serious core shift between the shoulder and the through hole for the plug. The bottom part of the plug doesn't have much of a should to back it up:



Does that seem weird to you? Would you just put some Permatex on the new Volvo plug and wail on it till it seats? Because that's what I'm about to do.
 
s-l1600.jpg
 
doucheNozzle said:
You can also use the deeworks kit
Click to expand...

Yeah, people keep saying that, but I don't see how that would work on a B23. First, there's much less material on the block around the plug to tap than on a B230. Second, the welch plug on a B23 is recessed into the block a bit more, so the deeworks kit wouldn't touch the plug, and by the time the plug moved out enough to get caught by the retainer, it would already be leaking.

Edit: Actually, I see that the retainers are offset, so if you could successfully tap a B23 block, they would work. I still don't think it would work on all but a few of the plugs.
 
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