Steel or brass? What's the best way to install to minimize leaks? The brass looks great but I've had to re-do two already. pounding them in isn't exactly easy either.
We speculated that perhaps the pressure needs to be in the center as well?

If you don't have a freeze plug driver then find a socket that just fits inside the cupped section and put an extension in socket, and hammer it in
Me? I prefer brass. And they do make deep and shallow freeze plugs, I prefer the deep ones if I can get them.
Brass is more corrosion resistant than steel ones.

I also like to apply a line of blue loc-tite around the edge before I hammer them in. Don't know how much it helps, but it can't hurt.

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Somehow I ended up owning three 1964 slant six A-bodies. I race one of them.
Escape Velocity Racing

Thanks folks, I'll try both suggestions.

and in the highly automated engine assembly plant that I worked in, liquid Loctite was applied as part on the cup plug assembly process,,,

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Liquid loctite should be the better option.

The center is the wrong place to drive.... you need to drive at the outer periphery of the recess.

I used to be gung-ho about brass because it lasts longer and it sure is pretty. I still like brass well enough, but at some point I realized that very few engines of this sort are being assembled for applications that will ever 'challenge' even a steel plug. That's especially true now that, after 8 or 9 decades, we've finally learned not to run straight water in our cooling systems. Combine that with the simple fact that I don't need a plug to last 30 years and the case for brass is not that strong.

I do think brass drives a little easier, as it's softer, and might seal a bit more readily.

When we filled the engine with fluid and pressurized it, every one of these leaked. Don't know if we should maybe have honed the openings more or applied sealant to the plugs as they went in but....dammit.



The lesson here for my 16-year old son (and everybody else involved ) is that it's never as simple as you expect it to be. Later Chryslers (post '63) are a bit easier in that standard processes had been (by then) put in place by Ma Mopar and seemingly all the parts are far-easier to obtain. This 1960 unit has been a serious bitch to rehabilitate for the simple reason that replacement parts almost never seem to be quite right, even the GD freeze plugs!

This 1-year only color is also quite different, depending the lighting in the shop. It's almost looks blue here....



I spent years re-doing a '68 R/T Charger 4-gear car. It was a piece of cake compared to the daily struggles of just making this ancient Dart safe to drive.

There is a loctite that seeps into an already torqued fasteners that might work.

I'll try to find which one it is.....

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

emsvitil: Wow, cool stuff! Never heard of that one before. Thank you. The good news here is that by smoothing out the openings a bit more and then slathering the brass plugs with some Permatex solution before driving them home, the problem is resolvable. I just heard that on the last pressure test that even the blasted intake/exhaust mounting studs on the head were seeping coolant(!). These early motors are full of oddities, clearly. I'm guessing that by tomorrow, every stud and plug on this unit will have a new coating of goo to keep things properly dry. Hoping to shoehorn everything back together into the car then. Fingers crossed.

Yes, the studs that are used to mount the intake/exhaust to the head are through holes into the water jacket and need a sealant on them. I use RTV.
There is at least one maybe two of the front cover bolt holes that are through holes and need sealant.
The two alternator mount bolt holes below #1 sparkplug are also through holes.
I had one motor that would seep oil up and out of the two crank rear seal carrier mounting holes, so if those are through holes I plug those from the top side with RTV.

Lastly, if your water jacket cup plugs leak, I bet the rear cam cup plug will also leak, be sure to address it. And hopefully you put sealant on the front and rear oil galley plugs.

The leak paths mentioned above exist on all slants, not only the early ones.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Man, that looks like a revolutionary new product! I'll let my uncle take a look at this and see if he'll need one for the incoming slant six engine after we finished installing the brake kit and hd wheels on the truck, and clear the garage.

Killing some time here waiting on parts today. Was looking at the earlier photo showing the brass freeze plugs on the passenger-side of the engine and noticed the casting numbers on the block don't reflect any information I can find in the Dutra book. Anybody have an explanation for the odd numbering sequence? I was expecting to see 2463430, instead however I see 2202857. I've dated the block to March 1st, 1962 (S22 3 01, clearly a replacement on this 1960 Senaca) but the book indicates that the casting number should be the same thru 1967. Any quess as to what this might indicate?