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MG TD TF 1500 - Freeze plug replacement

Well.. last weekend I saw the first tell tale signs of the dreaded freeze plug leak. I guess that might be the ONLY advantage to useing the MOSS engine paint. It tells you right away where your antifreeze leaks are by the stains in the paint.

Right behind the exhaust manifold. So a quick email to T. Lange has a set of plugs on their way. Have a place lined up to ceramic coat my exhaust header while it's off. New intake and exhaust gaskets are on order.

Took maybe 10 minutes to unhook fuel line, choke cable and throttle linkage, 4 nuts and the whole intake and exhaust system comes off. That is just so cool how the whole intake comes off without disturbing anything.

Come to find out the back plug was leaking a little bit as well. Got all the plugs out and block scraped and cleaned for the new ones. Just no way to get to the rear plug so I took a cue from my searching and drilled a 3/8 hole in the toe board directly center of where the rear plug is. I'll put a rubber plug in that small hole but it was a piece of cake to get the old freeze plug out then, and provide a dandy guide to dimple the new plug. So now to find the appropriate sealant for brass plugs in a cast iron block.

I always did have a slight leak from the drain cock. Had a bugger of a time getting the drain cock out. the Hex got rounded so had to rely on a mini pipe wrench. I was able to salvage it, filed the flats down so an 11mm wrench is a nice fit. cleaned it up, lap it in, and it now seals at the valve. I even pressure tested it with soap at the spiggot and air pressure on the other end and no bubbles. It had been installed with a fiber washer that was the wrong size and did not seal. I had some copper washers that have a good fit and plan to use that to seal against the block. The concern is having the little spiggot point in the right direction. A better solution would be an o ring. What have some of you all done to seal that drain cock to the block???

Fortunately I still have some of the engine paint so will have to spray some in a small cup and brush toughup the stained areas.

It's always something isn't it.
L Rutt

An o-ring needs to be constrained on all sides to effectively seal. The fiber washer is correct but it does need to be the rigbt size. I also had truble getting the orientation correct, so I took a little off the fiber washer until the drain valve could be tightened in the right orientation. Some hylomar may help in sealing, but mine's installed dry.
Dave Braun

This thread was discussed on 27/10/2011

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