Date:         Fri, 19 Oct 2001 18:51:26 -0600
Reply-To:     Gnarlodious <Gnarlodious@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Gnarlodious <Gnarlodious@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Re: block core heater
Comments: To: dieselwesty <dieselwesty@yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To:  <018d01c158c6$07651b00$c401a8c0@esavio.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Entity dieselwesty spoke thus:

> How do you go about removing the freeze plug.  It did not seem as if I could
> just drill a hole in it and put a large screw in there and yank it out.  It
> there a tool for this?
My experience is the sharp chisel, take the chisel to a shop and have it
SHARP! The installation of the freeze plug is that it is pounded in the
center and expands to fit tight. You must break this compression by cutting
the disk of the metal, it then comes out easily. Remember the cylinder walls
are in there so don't pound with a sledgehammer. Try not to damage the cast
iron hole walls or the rubber seal won't.

The heater only goes in one way due to the casting around the hole. Be aware
that if you install it wrong when the coolant gets pressure the plug will
pop out, so do the initial warmup in your driveway.

I don't think it is terribly critical that the plug goes at that end of the
block. It works most efficiently at the end with less metal mass, that is
all. It's just that end is behind the mount and exhaust, that is the tough
part.

Rachel http://www.gnarlodious.com