Freeze Plug and Oil Gallery Installation

On with the rebuild. On this weeks agenda is the installation of the freeze plugs and oil gallery plugs. I decided on brass freeze plugs and bought a kit from Federal Mogul. It included all the necessary plugs in one package.

Installation of the plugs is pretty easy. First I cleaned any stray paint and debris from the freeze plug bores, a completely clean mating surface is essential to prevent big time leaks down the road. Next I thoroughly cleaned both the the bore and freeze plug with lacquer thinner and then applied a coating of Permatex No. 2 non-hardening sealant to each surface.

At this point it’s simply a matter of placing the freeze plug in its bore and driving it into place.

To drive the plug I used a large socket and a hard rubber mallet. I also placed a large washer below the socket to prevent it from deforming the plug.

Next I installed the oil gallery plugs. To avoid any leaks I coated the threads with the same sealant I used for the freeze plugs. It’s important to coat the threads of the plug, NOT the threads in the block. If you put the sealant in the block any excess sealant will be pushed off the threads and end up in the oil passages, and as we all know, gobs of junk floating around in your oiling system is not good! By putting sealant on the plug any excess is left on the outside of the block where it can be easily wiped away.

Again, installation was pretty simple. I couldn’t find a torque spec so I tightened the plugs to 30 ft-lbs.

Here’s the back of the block. I’ve intentionally left out the cam plug for now. I want to wait until the cam comes in before installing it so that I can verify that everything is as it should be before I seal it up.

That’s it for this update! Another should be up soon so stay tuned!