Helping a buddy and looking for some suggestions.
He bought a Dodge Daytona IROC R/T over the fall/winter for cheap that needed some TLC. The most glaring issue was a significant oil leak coming from a hard to reach 3/8 NPT plug on the bottom side of the head. Doing a little homework on the car, it appears the previous-previous owner had a head gasket/timing belt/etc. done by a shop and noticed the leak shortly after that. This was many years ago (like 2010 IIRC). The guy tried various sealants and tapes with no luck before deciding to live with it and just regularly top off the oil. The only positive was that leak pretty much completely coated the bottom of the car with oil, allowing the floors to avoid the tin worm in Ohio.
We had the head off a couple months ago, when another friend was supposed to come weld a plug in place (as is/was commonly done on these heads to prevent cracking around plugs between the spark plugs). Removing the plug and looking at the hole, it almost appeared like someone badly stripped it out and tried to drill or drive something in that ended up on an angle. At the last minute, the welder guy realized he would be unable to weld cast aluminum. My buddy then bought a new plug and used Loctite 567 (high temp thread sealant) around it to seal the hole.
We put the car back together and on it’s first start up there was zero leak. However, after its first drive around the block, the leak came back… with a vengeance. It’s now leaking much worse than it was when he first bought the car.
With the head still on, he was able to access the plug and remove it. It appears the Loctite didn't stand up to the heat. A liberal amount of Teflon tape was attempted, but also did not solve it.
Here’s the dilemma:
We’re trying to get the car on the road for next weekend, and really don’t want to have to pull the head again. Where the plug is located, it’s probably going to be next to impossible to get a drill/tap/etc. in there. We’re looking for some kind of sealant/epoxy to go on the plug or on a bolt with a copper washer to either permanently stop the leak, or temporarily plug it up until the head can be pulled to allow it to be welded at some point in the near future. Anybody have a suggestion?
The only thing that comes to mind is a rubber expansion plug for a short term band-aid. Other than that I would pull it apart and have a machine shop/ welding shop repair it as T3 stuff is thin on the ground last time I looked.
Paul
I have no idea what the plug in question, or indeed the head, looks like, but JB Weld is my go-to for closing holes I can't weld up.
JB weld could work, if you can get the hole really clean, no oil. If you take the valve cover off, can you stop the flow of oil getting to the threaded hole? Lots of brake cleaner, to get it really clean, and make sure the JB weld is really well mixed.
They come in different sizes.
The issue I have had with JB weld is if it fails, it fails quickly with little to no warning.
What's wrong with good ol' black RTV in this application?
Is this a pipe-thread style plug, or is it straight threaded? If it's straight threaded, get a bolt with a flange head and RTV under that as well?
In reply to Donebrokeit :
I second this, had a block heater break on block of car before, thought I was going to have to pull motor to replace with freeze plug until found out about these.
Just to update on this...
We used a ridiculous amount of Hondabond to coat the plug and then create an almost "cork" above the plug from inside the head. We then let it sit for over 24 hours before starting it and still having a massive oil leak.
This time, however, we really honed in on the fact that the timing belt was soaked, which seemed strange given that the leak didn't "spray" under RPM's and wasn't affected by the fan coming on. Didn't really make sense the belt was getting wet... unless it wasn't the plug at all...
We ended up checking the exhaust cam seal, and sure enough, that's where the oil was coming from...
Took something like 9 years and 3 owners to figure it out... Now if we could just get the car to stop overheating...
In reply to shelbyz :
Baby steps...hopefully it only takes you a couple years - or(way) less - to solve the overheating problem!
If your weldor can't weld automotive cast aluminum you need to find a new weldor.
shelbyz said:
Just to update on this...
We used a ridiculous amount of Hondabond to coat the plug and then create an almost "cork" above the plug from inside the head. We then let it sit for over 24 hours before starting it and still having a massive oil leak.
This time, however, we really honed in on the fact that the timing belt was soaked, which seemed strange given that the leak didn't "spray" under RPM's and wasn't affected by the fan coming on. Didn't really make sense the belt was getting wet... unless it wasn't the plug at all...
We ended up checking the exhaust cam seal, and sure enough, that's where the oil was coming from...
Took something like 9 years and 3 owners to figure it out... Now if we could just get the car to stop overheating...
Good job. I missed this thread when it first came up and as I was reading it I kept thinking "It's not the plug" just because it's not that hard to get a tapered pipe plug to seal.
