Anti freeze leak and Barrs sealer question

[Dave6T4]

Years ago, a coolant leak occurred between the timing case and the front of the block in the 318 in our daily driver 5th Ave. I added Barr's. Stop Leak per instructions. I left the engine running and could watch the leak slow down and finally stop. It never leaked again and I never had any heater problems. I eventually sold the car to a friend and he used the power train and front suspension cross member in a 1947 Ford pick-up he built.

 

[F4R/T]

Ford adds a pellet to the vehicle as it comes off the assembly line, everyone used to get them. I’ll bet they all do it. I can see the purpose , I used Mendtite once and it was a temp situation that had a seep and I was leaving with it and didn’t want to worry.. I followed the directions to the tee and it clogged the heater core. I replaced it soon after and flushed the heck out of everything after never again.

 

[Danny Boy]

Have you checked the freeze plugs on the front of your heads, I had a leak there that I fixed.

My question is not meant to hijack....

Anyhow, have any of you ever had to replace the freeze plug on the head for any reason?

When you are rebuilding heads, do you normally replace freeze plugs on heads as in this picture?

Do you clean passages in heads?

Where do you find these freeze plugs for heads?

Sorry if these questions do not belong here...

 

[Dennis H]

Fun read. Like the Hellcat forum users have a new guy all shook up and take his whole goddam car apart for a problem instead of trying the easy/inexpensive stuff first.

 

[slepr1]

After reading all the comments I'd personally use the stop leak but adjust the heater temp to cool and leave it there until I flushed the rad after the leak stops.

 

[F4R/T]

Disconnect heater before use.. loop hoses together.

 

[Glenn's hc]

Disconnect heater before use.. loop hoses together.

Good advise, but the Sealant is always in the system

 

[Mackman]

I have used Barrs-leak on a number of head gasket leaks on farm tractors with good result. Also had success with it on a small crack in an engine water jacket. Bypassed the heater core initially when the stuff was dissolving.

 

[RJRENTON]

IMO.....
The pellets in Barr's Pelletized Stop Leak products are said to react, when added to a leaking coolant system, swim around the system and when they find a leak, all the pellets try and crowd into the leak area, plugging the leak...... OR....as related by an old heavy equipment operator (Cat D6 Dozer with a cable blade), who swears the "best" fix is black pepper.....just dump 2 or 3 cans of corse black pepper into the radiator and it circulates and the pepper swells up stopping the lesk......personally, I would not use any stop leak product.....just fix what's leaking......gaskets, hoses, seals etc.....
BOB RENTON

 

[multimopes]

I also had a neon head gasket problem. This cured it completely. I had meant it as a temporary repair, but it was still doing the job several months later, right up to the day the car got stolen.

In my case, I had bought the Neon new and it was 14 years later that the head gasket went. It didn't leak on the ground, it just blew off into the coolant recovery tank. I kept a small plastic tray in the trunk with a small transfer hand pump in it. I also installed a see through plastic pipe in the upper hose so I could monitor the level of coolant in the motor. For over a year, I checked it every time after it cooled down from a drive. When the upper hose level got low or empty, I would pop the radiator cap and pump the coolant back into the engine from the over flow. I used the K-seal first as it was recommended by a mechanic. Then I switched to Barrs Leaks which seemed to last a little longer. The car was never garaged or undercoated and got hammered pretty much every day. It had hardly ever got waxed or pampered in any way as it was my commuter car. It had 251,000 miles on it and lot's of rust when I drove it to the bone yard. It was a very good car & I would buy one again if they still made them.

 

[kbfallon]

So I had a very small antifreeze leak on the passenger side rear lower corner where the head meets the block , I recently changed the anti freeze and really haven’t drove the car all that much being winter . Today I took it out for a short ride , parked and noticed the leak is worse while sitting.
No over heating, no anti freeze in the oil , no oil in the antifreeze. No burning of antifreeze. My question is , has anyone used Barrs or like kind of sealant added to the antifreeze and had good luck for a fix? anyone against using sealants and why. What was your personal experiences if you have . 440 BTY

anyone ever use the tablets also ?

I have used Moroso Ceramic engine sealant in an emergency....it sealed a leaking head gasket on a 14:1 race motor at the track and held up until I had time to pull the heads off and replace the gasket. They make a version to use with anti-freeze and one for no anti-freeze. It was in an 23T Altered and no heater core of course. I saw someone use it to seal an engine block that split between the freeze plugs....it worked but not sure for how long.

 

[MTBRider]

I’ve been working on an AMC Javelin for a friend that turned out had cracked heads (very common for certain years). You can clearly see the cracks and coolant was basically flowing out of them. One can of K-seal and within 1 minute of running, no more leaks. Brand new aluminum radiator with no evidence of clogging. Planning on leaving the product in the system to help keep it sealed up. Not a big fan of stuff like this but changing my opinion after trying K-seal

 

[YY1]

Alumaseal is much less offensive than Barr's.

I've also used black pepper.

Agree about eliminating a head freeze plug *** a possibility.
Clean area real good and maybe pressure test.

 

[Glenn's hc]

Well I used the Barrs just like it said on the can and it worked !!!!!

 

[YY1]

It's not that it doesn't work...

...it's that it can gum up stuff, esp the water pump or thermostat.

I've personally seen that several times.

I've never seen that happen with Alumaseal.

 

[joe smith]

I’ve been working on an AMC Javelin for a friend that turned out had cracked heads (very common for certain years). You can clearly see the cracks and coolant was basically flowing out of them. One can of K-seal and within 1 minute of running, no more leaks. Brand new aluminum radiator with no evidence of clogging. Planning on leaving the product in the system to help keep it sealed up. Not a big fan of stuff like this but changing my opinion after trying K-seal

View attachment 1252974 View attachment 1252975

Curious about AMC heads cracking.. Can you enlighten us more? Thanks

 

[Cranky]

Shortly after I bought my 66 Belvedere the t-stat stuck so went to swap it out and knew right away it had stop leak in it but didn't flush out the system because I thought about another car that had stop leak in it and once it got flushed out, the leak showed up and there was no temp fix for that one again. Anyways, the new t-stat stuck not long after and so did the next one and that's when I gave up on it. At least they were sticking open. Radiator and heater never plugged up. From the smell of the coolant.....pretty sure they both had Bars Leak in them.

 

[MarPar]

As "kids" we just used a teaspoon of instant porridge.

 

[Dennis H]

Don’t use any leak stop crap, it’ll plug your heater core. Have you checked the freeze plugs on the front of your heads, I had a leak there that I fixed.

View attachment 1250210

Disassemble the whole god dam car. ;)

 

[MTBRider]

Curious about AMC heads cracking.. Can you enlighten us more? Thanks

According to some of the AMC forums I checked out, certain AMC v8 heads from the 60’s to early 70’s had a design flaw where they had a pretty sharp corner near the forward most lower head bolts which caused a stress point that lead to cracking. Mechanics back then knew to not fully torque those two bolts.