[Shop-talk] Frost heater/freeze plug

[Scott Hall]

This is mostly theory.

One of my staff wants to stick a frost heater in his car--it's a Kia with a
3.3L engine (though I don't think that matters for the question).

Since he thinks I'm a car guy--which in his head means I know everything
about all cars--he's asking for help.

He brought in the instructions and the heater itself. The instructions are
pretty simple: drain coolant, "remove plug" (quotes mine--it just says
"plug", so I'm assuming that's a freeze/expansion plug), screw in heater,
refill coolant, etc.

The heater to install is threaded. It says to torque it to 30 lb. ft.

The plug he's removing probably isn't...I'd think.

Obviously without rolling under the car, who knows? But I'm tempted to tell
him to not start--the only way I know to remove a freeze plug is to drill a
hole in it, then pull it out with something. If there are no threads behind
it--and I can't imagine that a press-in freeze plug presses in to a
threaded hole--then he's just going to need a new freeze plug to reinstall.

So I guess my questions to the list are:

1) anyone ever see a threaded freeze plug? That would seem to defeat the
whole purpose of allowing it to pop out.

2) anyone ever see threads behind a freeze plug? Perhaps the plug presses
into a smooth port, and there are threads behind it?

We called the manufacturer who confirmed that the part number is correct.
It's used on several models so they couldn't say for sure other than,
"it'll work". I'd hate to see this kid pull out a freeze plug then be
screwed.

YouTube similarly has nothing relevant.

Anybody have any experience with this before I just have him drive over and
roll under the car to see what I'm looking at?

Thanks.
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