1995 Ford Explorer Freeze Plug

[Crumm]

This morning I was installing a block heater in our 1995 Explorer. When I tapped the Freeze Plug to rotate it out rather than rotating it went in. Do you suppose it is going to create any future cooling problems in the water jacket? I chased it around for about an hour but never could get it out so now it is lost in the block. I am not very enthused about pulling the engine and disassembling it just to get the stupid plug out. I did some searching online but didn't really come up with much as far as this particular problem. I am thinking that it wont hurt a thing but a real life story about this situation would ease my frustration a little. I ran it for about an hour and it seemed to cool just fine.

I have installed many freeze plug block heaters and normally the plug will rotate but this one fell right in with the first tap

 

[Crumm]

Just found this online:

I had to replace a freeze plug on my 93 ford explorer 4.0 engine and when I tried to remove the old plug it just fell in. I asked the service guys and they said it wouldn't hurt the engine by leaving them in.

leave it in (seen it A LOT here in WI where someone puts in a frost plug block heater) never caused any problems.

 

[F350DRW1]

Hey, Crumm, did the same thing on a Cougar a few years ago, and its still running fine. No worries.

 

[Crumm]

Thats a relief...

 

[Maxtor]

Glad to hear you will not have any problems with it Crumm.
Here in the warm part of the country, we never mess with the freeze plugs, unless they rot out, then we replace them with brass plugs.

 

[Tbar]

Our 1995 Exploder came with a factory installed block heater.............like I will need it down here. lol


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[Crumm]

Our 1995 Exploder came with a factory installed block heater

Where is it? I installed this one in the right front freeze plug hole since it was the only one I could get to.

 

[Tbar]

Well.............I took a couple of pictures. I have to say that the Ford engineers that designed the 4.0 EFI into this vehicle were a sadistic bunch.

You cant see much less get to spark plugs in this thing.

Anyway...............the block heater is in the passenger side front side freeze plug hole.


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[Crumm]

the block heater is in the passenger side front side freeze plug hole.

Thats where I put mine. To get to it I just pulled the rubber up inside the wheel-well and went in through the hole next to the shock. One of the simpler heaters I have installed. If there was not room through the wheel-well it would have been the toughest one.

You cant see much less get to spark plugs in this thing.

I have not tackled the plugs or much of anything else yet. My mom purchased this 1995 when it was new. She gave it to the grandkids when she purchased a new 2005 Expedition. It has around 150,000 miles on it but she had everything done that was listed in the service manual by the dealer. Darn thing runs like a top, doesn't use a drop of oil and other than the speedometer squeaking from time to time there is not a thing wrong with it. We have had it for a couple of years but have only put about 3000 miles on it. Here lately I started driving it more due to the high price of fuel. It cost about half as much to fill it up as our other rigs and will go forever on a tank. Last winter I just parked it but decided to install the block heater, oil pan heater and transmission heater so I can drive it to work this winter. Poor old Crummy hasn't been started in a couple of weeks other than to diagnose a coolant leak last night. Late next summer the first of three boys will be getting his license so I imagine my Explorer days are numbered. I just hope it lasts through three of them so I can keep them out of Crummy...

 

[Tbar]

Bought ours from my boss last year...........only had about 25,000 miles cause he was never in the states to drive it. It is was imaculate.

Like you we have been driving it more also cause of fuel prices. Nice that it has 4 wheel drive for use in bad weather.


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