Hey Guys,
Just bought this Gen V 454 Mag on Ebay. Picked it up last week (12 drive to TX there and back) and upon closer inspection, I found that the Starboard Freeze Plug closes to the fly wheel is missing. Im not worried about loosing money on the engine as I am protected under ebay buyer protection as well as PayPal, but I wanted to make sure that this was indeed where a freeze plug was supposed to be. I only have experience with Merc Small Blocks but it certainly looks like a freeze plug should be in this location. The only thing throwing me off is the small threaded hole above the freeze plug that does not go all the way through the block, I'm thinking is for a hose mount or something. It is odd that the motor would freeze considering the motor came from West Texas. That being said, I have only ever seen these plugs come out if the motor was indeed frozen which would lead me to believe it has internal damage.

Here is a picture.



Just making sure I'm not crazy to return the motor for a full refund.

Thanks
Billy

I've seen this before and it's common here in the north. We had one fall out my buddies 454 in his Chevelle and it was filled with enough coolant for the temperature at the time. I'd install a new one with the proper Loctite to prevent it from happening again.

That's a freeze plug or what I should say, lack of one.
Drain the oil and see if any water comes out.

Thanks Guys. I popped a new one in.



Also spoke with the buyer and voiced my concerns. He said since it's so hot in the summer that it could have popped out from the block getting hot while sitting. Never heard of that. Anyway, he told me he would extend my warrenty until I can get it started to see how it runs, and he would refund me the cost of the engine if it's bad but he had it compression checked, and it was running in the boat he got it out of so he thinks it's ok. There is no water in the oil and it Dosnt have any visable cracks in the block. I'll work on getting it started on the stand and if anything sounds off I'll return it.

Thanks
Billy

O right: and a monkey just flew out my butt, the only time Ive seen freeze plugs gone is they were pushed out by ice, magnaflux the block for piece of mind, good luck

Yeah thats kind of what I thought as well, but Ill give him the benefit of the doubt and start the motor on the stand to see if the oil gets milky. By the time I took it to the shop to have it torn down and checked, and reassembled, I could have bought another engine. I amy pull the intake manifold and see if there are any visible cracks in the valley.

Thanks,
Billy

did you take off the intake manifold? most likely block crack will be running back-to-front under the pushrods.

I'd say to check the area of the freeze plug properly, you'd have to pull the head and check the area of the water jacket. We had a BBC crack at the bottom of the bore, right in the water jacket area. You could only see it if the piston was at the bottom of its stroke.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Im going to pull the intake manifold today. I'll post some pics to see what you guys think. If it looks ok, I'm going to run the motor on the stand and see how it sounds, and what the oil looks like after.

Thanks,
Billy

No way he would not have seen water in the bilge if he was running that engine in his boat...