It's 8:30 am, and I'm about to go out and start tackling the freeze out plug problem with my car. I make sure to take some pics of my amatuer disassembly skills. :o)

 

Okay, I've been going at it slowly now for a couple hours, here are the pics as i have taken them.


Out with the battery..........

 

There goes the air box, meter, piping, and a couple rad hoses........

 

Well I wish you good luck!

 

Missing a few more parts....radiaotor, and shroud.......
Notice the frothy soft serve oil/water mix on the ground.....Captain Planet is gonna kick my ***.

 

I'm gettin close. I have the fan, water pump, water housing, alternator, and air pump off....

 

Anyone have any suggestions as to get the main shaft nut off?
I'm assuming the freeze outs are behind the cover that has the crank angle sensor going into it??

 

sounds like a Where's Waldo Adventure.

Why are you searching for the freeze plugs? water in oil? search might be in vain as the 100's of engines I had apart never had a freeze plug failure - however, a broken water jacket and shot seal - now thats another story.

 

I may be hopeing for the best, but even without pressure on the coolant system, water level drop quickly in the radiator as I add it, so I'm figuring it's not like a crack or anything like that in a housing, because it would take pressure to force the water through the crack.

 

Where does the coolant 'go' once you start filling it? Into the oil pan?

 

It was spewing out the oil fill tube and the dipstick tube. Kinda like a coffee perculator

 

Dan Atkins thinks it is going into the oilpan once it goes through the faulty freeze outs.

 

You're going to need a VERY high torque impact wrench to get that front bolt off. I broke a socket yesterday trying to get it off when advised that i should leave it alone unless i want to take the front cover off to fix a bearing problem (which i don't). Hope you have craftsman!

 

Craftsman 3/4 drive with mac sockets. he he

 

DO NOT REMOVE THAT NUT UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND THE CONSEQUENCES!

Read this: http://www.mazdatrix.com/faq/pulley.htm

 

Oh yeah, be careful of that needle bearing, it's why i gave up on fixing the front seal on my car. I'll do it when i have time to pull the front cover.

 

Ewwww..........
So as long as i do like they say and wedge the clutch, then that bearing should stay in place?

Geez, this becoming harder than expected.
But I will trudge on.

 

Thanks Aaron for letting me know that.

 

Well, if the bearing slips you should be able to put it back in place since you'll have the front cover off. But keep the clutch pressed and tell me if that works for you!

 

Yeah, I have to find an impact wrench first, so I'm just about done for the day.
but i'll keep posting as it happens.

 

I can't remember exactly, I know the top rotor housing coolant passages are open with what you've got off now...Is there any passages heading downward from the opening there? You might want to make sure it's a plug problem before you crack the front bolt.

Also, looks like your water pump weep hole is spewing **** all over the front cover too...

Is that GREEN corrosion all over the bolts & gasket area? If so, that would be copper oxide, which means SOMEONE filled the coolant system with well water at some point in the past...Which means you might actually HAVE corroded away a freeze plug...

 

The OEM gaskets are green in the first place, but the studs do look like they have the green corrosion on them. Gnome311 can you verify if it is green?

 

Well I don't think the studs had 'green' corrosion on them, but they definately have some corrosion.......




Here's a shot of the inside of the front cover inlet for the coolant, looks pretty nasty.............




And this is a connector that broke while removing the water pump housing, anyone know what it's for, and is it easy to find a replacement?...........

 

Oh yeah, and I just recently replaced the water pump. The previous one was wizzing all over the place.
And yes there are passages leading down into the water inlet. I was gonna test to see if water just went straight through into the oil pan, but figured if it's not the freeze plugs the engine is gonna need to be tore down anyway. So I'm just gonna replace them, put it all back together, flush everything out and hope for the best.

 

Ahh, yet another water thermo sensor broken off by our hands & tools, ha ha...

All right , the corrosion doesn't look as bad as I first thought. What did the original water pump vanes look like?

Yeh, that passage off to the left, in the second picture, does it go down the front housing a ways? That might work for your "test". The lower half (or more) of the coolant passages in the housings should fill up, and if you've got the catastrophic leak you think you do, it should make it's way to the oil pan (got the oil pan drain plug off?)