[Shop-talk] Frost heater/freeze plug

[John Innis]

There are different styles of those heaters.  Some intended to install in a
freeze plug, some intended for go in a radiator hose, and some intended to
go in place of a drain plug or port plug.  It sounds like he has one that
is meant to go in a drain plug?

On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 11:22 AM Scott Hall <scott.hall.personal at gmail.com>
wrote:

> This is mostly theory.
>
> One of my staff wants to stick a frost heater in his car--it's a Kia with
> a 3.3L engine (though I don't think that matters for the question).
>
> Since he thinks I'm a car guy--which in his head means I know everything
> about all cars--he's asking for help.
>
> He brought in the instructions and the heater itself. The instructions are
> pretty simple: drain coolant, "remove plug" (quotes mine--it just says
> "plug", so I'm assuming that's a freeze/expansion plug), screw in heater,
> refill coolant, etc.
>
> The heater to install is threaded. It says to torque it to 30 lb. ft.
>
> The plug he's removing probably isn't...I'd think.
>
> Obviously without rolling under the car, who knows? But I'm tempted to
> tell him to not start--the only way I know to remove a freeze plug is to
> drill a hole in it, then pull it out with something. If there are no
> threads behind it--and I can't imagine that a press-in freeze plug presses
> in to a threaded hole--then he's just going to need a new freeze plug to
> reinstall.
>
> So I guess my questions to the list are:
>
> 1) anyone ever see a threaded freeze plug? That would seem to defeat the
> whole purpose of allowing it to pop out.
>
> 2) anyone ever see threads behind a freeze plug? Perhaps the plug presses
> into a smooth port, and there are threads behind it?
>
> We called the manufacturer who confirmed that the part number is correct.
> It's used on several models so they couldn't say for sure other than,
> "it'll work". I'd hate to see this kid pull out a freeze plug then be
> screwed.
>
> YouTube similarly has nothing relevant.
>
> Anybody have any experience with this before I just have him drive over
> and roll under the car to see what I'm looking at?
>
> Thanks.
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