Removing Freeze Plug Necessary?

Hi Guys,
Please indulge me with one more question if I may. Is it really necessary to remove the freeze plug when draining the cooling system if I remove the bottom radiator hose? If so, then where do you get a new freeze plug to put back in? Thanks again. Preston
 
The only time you need to remove a freeze plug is when it's leaking or the engine is being rebuilt.

Just loosen the lower hose and open the block drain peacock to drain the coolant.
75 Tips
 
Great! That's the answer that I was hopping for. But, how do you keep you hands and arms from getting all scratched up when you drain a peacock? Best, Preston.
 
I wouldn't hesitate to remove the freeze plugs if the tractor is new to you and you do not know the condition of the water jacket.
In my experience, most fifty-sixty year old tractors have a water jacket that is half full of scale and sludge. The only way I know of to clean that out with any degree of confidence, short of hot tanking the block, is to remove the freeze plugs and really get in there and flush it good. An old spoon helps. Long skinny fingers are a plus!
Freeze plugs can be had at any good auto parts store for a buck or two.

Joe
 

Case in point, I had a Welch plug rust out on my 52 8N behind the starter (wet leaves and debris caught there and corroded the plug). Below is a picture that shows how the block was progressively worse from cylinder #1 to #4. Tractor was running fine, but it was running hotter on #4 due to the lack of good water flow there.

Jimps in GA.

p50286.jpg


Close-up of #4:

p50287.jpg
 
When I did my freeze plugs I was surprised at how easily the water jacket came clean. It was half filled with crud, as Joe describes, but a few minutes
with a hose stuck in each plug hole and a little poking and scratching and it looked as good as anything less that a trip to the hot tank was likely to
achieve - heroic measures were not required. Interestingly, the machine had never overheated, even with the water jackets nearly plugged.
 

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