2nd freeze plug in 3 years

[cerrajero]

hey guys hope your staying warm.....atlanta is closed....ice and snow...

monday morning i went to warm the cj up....started right up...went back inside for maybe 5 min...when i got back out there was antifreeze pouring out from underneath..... freeze plug underneath the manifold side gone....( cant even find it )

this is the second time in 3 years....wtf??.... I religously check all fluids and the coolant was fine just last week.

it was snowing at the time and cold
i put the tranny back in from the rebuild back around the 1st of dec
along with the tranny mount
in 2009 around nov or dec....i had it checked out ( by someone smarter ( that wasnt hard to find) than me on jeeps) and they found that the freeze plug was "coming out" and had to be replaced.

i can come up with all kinds of guesses to the point of engine replacement but im hoping that someone here can help with the answer

i searched freeze plugs on the site.....none that was the same


the radiator is older but i dont believe its OE
i switched to the orange antifreeze after the last freeze plug
the t-stat was taken out for 6 months (jan 2010)then put a 195 in (stant)
hoses are all GOODYEAR
water pump is flowing
gauge is reading ok ( laser thermometer on thermo housing said 198 before visible flow of coolant )

analyzed everything .....i think

thanks in advance
greg

 

[jeepardy]

Couple ?'s. Just how cold did it get in Atlanta? How cold the first time the plug popped? Was the replacement plug seated properly. When you say you checked the anti-freeze, was it the level that was checked, or did you check the fluid itself? The full 3 years since the first pop? Anitfreeze does loose its effectiveness over time. I flush and fill every fall.

The good thing is it's the freeze plug and not a cracked block, so it did its job. We are expecting 5 degrees here in Michigan tonight, so all vehicles go in the garage and the antifreeze was checked and good for -10.

 

[cerrajero]

the basic.....i check fluids at running temp.....coolant while running after 5 to 10 min.....oil after shut off.....ATL got down to 23....its been 20 years or more since its dipped past zero

 

[CJim7]

What he's asking is if you tested your antifreeze. The effectiveness of the antifreeze is checked using a tester that will determine at what temperature your antifreeze is good to. You adjust the mixture of water vs. coolant to keep your cooling system from freezing up.

 

[cerrajero]

the hydometer.......tested it in sept....dont have it in front of me but all the little balls were floating to the top

 

[cerrajero]

druing the summer i run 50/50.....starting in the fall i increase the antifreeze....

 

[CJim7]

Maybe it was just a bad freezeplug install. Things can repeat themselves.

 

[cerrajero]

bump
since the last incident i put a freeze plug in and hit the road
"the beast" runs great, sounds great.
but on start up and acceleration from a stop it blows a puff of white smoke
although i did put prestone super cleaner in the rad
and just last week i did the marvel mystery ( to clean it up a bit )

today compression test
dry and wet all cylinders 120 to 130
held pressure for 10 seconds before I released the pressure
still maintained

no loss of fluids that I can tell (rad shows signs of rust in the fluid though)
no loss of power
plugs do need to be changed but thats all i could tell
but she runs great

whatta think ?

 

[BusaDave9]

Maybe it was just a bad freezeplug install. Things can repeat themselves.

It cold be. Odd that it happened on a cold day. That almost sounds like coolant that's too weak.

 

[cerrajero]

the white smoke is a bothersome even though the performance has been great
and the compression test was ok
leak down test may take a bit to get to ( gotta borrow the tester )

oh # 1 and # 2 plugs

 

[BusaDave9]

bump
since the last incident i put a freeze plug in and hit the road
"the beast" runs great, sounds great.
but on start up and acceleration from a stop it blows a puff of white smoke

Makes me wonder if blew a head gasket but your compression is consistent.
Maybe the smoke is because it's running too rich.
I don't know. Maybe someone else will chime in.

 

[cerrajero]

thanks busa

plans this weekend is
radiator flush
oil change ( someone recommended ROTELLA )
spark plug change

but i am also leaning towards the head gasket