cooling system info?

[Jared]

Hi everyone...

As you may recall I inherited a 65 comet with the 289 engine in it.

On the way home from the cars first show I lost the left rear freeze
plug from the engine...all things being relative I lost all my
coolant and ended up stranded on the side of the road.

Well I ended up getting it to my mechanic and he replaced the
culprit freeze plug and it came home monday. For two days after that
there has been a slow and steady leak of basically all of my coolant
back out and onto the floor of my garage. As this is the first time
I have had to crawl udnerneath and look at it (school/work).

I see where the new freeze plug is, and it seems to be solid and
retaining water without any troubles. Unfortunately a bit further up
where I can't quite see very well is where the coolant is leaking
from this time.

I have the master parts list from ford for the specific model/year
of the car, as well as several other good books from chiltons and
the service manual as well. Unfortunately I haven't been able to
find a good detailed view of the backside of the engine to see where
it might be coming from, and if there might be another plug or seal
up farther that might be leaking as well.

So short of filling up the cooling system again and driving it the
two miles down the road to my mechanic is there any more information
out there that someone might be able to provide me with so that I
might be able to fix this problem on my own?

I appreciate any thoughts, tips, advice anyone might have to offer...

Thanks for your time,

Jared

[Ivan]

Checked the pipes, maybe they are old and crumbling?

Worst case: cracked head

[Mushroom_Farmer]

There are sometimes casting, or freeze, plugs in the rear of engine block as well as the cylinder heads. It could also be, dare I say it, a head gasket leaking.
The best method is to fill the system and pressurize it, but only to no more than 12-15psi. I would start around 9psi since it's an older vehicle. This method will usually bring out all leaks vividly.

[Brett_Henderson]

Heater hose ?  

[Jared]

Thanks for the advice guys I did some more searching in books and then went back out and did some more looking and found where hopefully ALL of the source of my leak was coming from.

As my grandfather had the car for almost 10 years before it became mine most of the hoses, belts and such were replaced so hopefully there shouldn't be TOO much work involved in that respect.

As suggested by mushroom farmer there was a freezeplug on the back left of the engine block. Left about 2.5 inches or less to get to it. Seems it had been replaced before too because it had a rubber one in place. So a trip to the hardware store and a lot of effort trying to get the old one out....

But in the end the new one is in place and so far it isn't leaking. I only ran it for 2-3 minutes tonight because it's so late but plan on letting it run for a bit tomorrow after work to see if anything else leaks.

It's nice to have an old car like that to work on. If it had been the pt cruiser I drive daily I would have had to pull the engine out to do most anything to it. ok..so maybe a LITTLE exagerated...but probably not by much.

Anyways, thanks again for the advice I'll have to keep the other sources of trouble in mind for future reference...and maybe tomorrow lol...

Thanks again,

Jared

[Mushroom_Farmer]

If it were me and since it had been sitting for a while, I would consider replaceing all belts and hoses just for peace of mind. Recommended replacement interval is suggested at every 2 years anyway.
I believe the original freeze plugs were made of brass at the time that engine was made, so it may be wise to plan a time to replace them also, or at least to do a thorough inspection. I believe there should be 3 down each side, 2 in the back of the block, and 1 in each cylinder head.
Be sure to keep the battery terminals and cables clean too. Way to many batteries go to an early grave from poor care.
Old cars can be a joy, but also require a fair amount of work to get them up to snuff(which you already know

[Woodlouse2002]

 Be sure to keep the battery terminals and cables clean too. Way to many batteries go to an early grave from poor care.

Hope this helps.

If you're going to care for batteries, sure makes sure that the terminals are clean but more importantly never let them go below 50% charge. If you have to leave the car for a long period of time, remove the battery and put it on a trickle charger or just charge it preiodically. If you do that then the battery will last forever.

[Jared]

Thanks again for the advice...all belts and hoses, along with the battery have been replaced in the last few months with new ones so they shouldn't prove to be a problem.

I was able to replace the bad freeze plug and my leak has dissapeared as well has a loss of coolant. Now all that is left to do is to flush the system and replace with the correct mixture of coolant/water.

Moving from the coolant system now I need to concentrate on two other sections which I will post a new message about shortly...

Thanks again for the advice..and YES I will replace ALL of the freeze plugs with the same type and good metal ones in the next year or so when I start to rebuild the engine... between work/school I can't afford the time to pull the engine out to get to all of them

[Mushroom_Farmer]

That's the great thing about old cars-nearly everything is rebuildable/repairable.  ;)  ;D