Any ideas on the best way to press these into place? Both sides are leaking. I know I will need to remove the fenders and possibly the exhaust manifolds to ease access. But what about pressing the darn things in?? I was gonna use and aluminum block drilled with the same pattern as the mounts and just tighten that up pressing it into place but I am open to other ideas.

Thanks!

 

I don't have an answer just didnt want you to feel ignored. It's not something I think is real common. I guess your talking about the casting plug's that they call "freeze out". Do you have the new one's, are they beveled like the finger pull's on a sliding door? What kind of metal are they? Would think anything flat that they could be tapped in with evenly would work, just not sure how ubstructed the area is.

 

They make freeze plugs driving tool. It is the same size as the plug & you just drive them in with a this tool & a hammer. If your good you can just tap them in with a hammer. Just make sure that the block is clean & free of rust. Lot of guys use to use a thin coating of Permatex around the edge or the plug.

 

They are cupped like originals but made of aluminum. My concern is that I won't have much room to be swinging a hammer, I know it's pretty crapoed in there.
I know about the tool I just don't want to spend $80 or so on a tool I probably won't use again.

 

Ok that really sucked! I just used a bolt in plug for the heater replacement. I did how ever make a cool little tool for pressing in the plugs behind the engine mounts. I simply used a 5/8" thick piece of aluminum plate, drilled the bolt pattern for the mount, used a few thick spacers and simply tightened them up evenly. The worst part was dealing with the engine mounts! But I did also notice that the engine mounts were bad and then did the idler arm while I was at it.
I did remove the fenders to make it easier, it really did make it easier. It really opened up the work area allowing access to the frost plugs and engine mounts.
Sorry I forgot to take pictures as I went.