azmachining

Hi all, I have a 98 dodge dakota 4 cylinder truck that just over heated all the sudden and blew out my radiator drain plug. I have the new drain plug, but it won't go in. The replacement plug has a bore in the center where the threads are, I think it blew the cap off(splitting the plug in half) leaving me with the threaded half still in the radiator. I've tried heating up a stubby phillip's head screw driver and pressing it in, but it won't come out. The radiator is still in the truck, which is where I hope I can leave it and fix it. I really need this vehicle to get to work, I have no other options, I'm in a really bad spot, any help would be greatly appreciated.

marc abrams

Did you try a bolt extractor? I can't imagine the broken plug being seized in there. If you can't remove the broken plug the only thing that may work temporary is to clean the hole, full the hole with the 24 hour JB weld, and jam a screw or something in the hole. Rip the rubber off of the radiator cap so it won't build any pressure. Then get a replacement radiator.

Out of curiosity what brought you here. This is a forum for Porsches.
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azmachining

Yeah I now see it's a forum for Porsches. I googled my issue I'm having and someone else had a issue about their radiator for their Porsche. I thought this was just a auto repair/mechanic site when I signed up. Thank you for the idea, I thought about trying the JB weld for radiators and machining a nylon plug I could JB weld in, but then I figured I would use a brass pipe plug. I pulled out the radiator and it had no plug or broken plug in the hole. It had a plastic clip that pops into a square hole, the clip has a slit on each side so it can hold its self in the square hole, the clip also has a little plastic threaded stud with a clip on it as well on the bottom. I've never seen any like it before and don't exactly know what it does, neither of the dodge/molar plugs available fit it. So I pulled the stupid thing out and tapped it for a 3/8" -18 taper pipe thread, teflon tape the plug and screwed it in and no leaks, should last as long as the radiator does. I am a machinist so thankfully I have tools on hand. Now the question is what's causing this clunker to overheat? I bought this thing with 70k miles on it and now it has 150k, first time ripping out the radiator and I can tell it's not the factory radiator. So most likely whoever owned it before had a cooling problem, something I now know about dodge gas engine vehicles, they're cooling systems are terrible. Top radiator hose and radiator get hot, so I think the thermostat is not sticking or not sticking at the moment, I can't rule that out yet. Water isn't making any noise and it's not leaking from weep hole, another head scratcher. Fan doesn't kick on as much as it used to, but when thermostat goes to half way it kicks on. Tested the fan and it's solid, but I do wonder if it could be the issue as well, like I said it used to be constantly kicking on, to where I didn't think it was getting warm enough, now it only kicks on when thermostat is halfway.

azmachining

Yeah I now see it's a forum for Porsches. I googled my issue I'm having and someone else had a issue about their radiator for their Porsche. I thought this was just a auto repair/mechanic site when I signed up. Thank you for the idea, I thought about trying the JB weld for radiators and machining a nylon plug I could JB weld in, but then I figured I would use a brass pipe plug. I pulled out the radiator and it had no plug or broken plug in the hole. It had a plastic clip that pops into a square hole, the clip has a slit on each side so it can hold its self in the square hole, the clip also has a little plastic threaded stud with a clip on it as well on the bottom. I've never seen any like it before and don't exactly know what it does, neither of the dodge/molar plugs available fit it. So I pulled the stupid thing out and tapped it for a 3/8" -18 taper pipe thread, teflon tape the plug and screwed it in and no leaks, should last as long as the radiator does. I am a machinist so thankfully I have tools on hand. Now the question is what's causing this clunker to overheat? I bought this thing with 70k miles on it and now it has 150k, first time ripping out the radiator and I can tell it's not the factory radiator. So most likely whoever owned it before had a cooling problem, something I now know about dodge gas engine vehicles, they're cooling systems are terrible. Top radiator hose and radiator get hot, so I think the thermostat is not sticking or not sticking at the moment, I can't rule that out yet. Water isn't making any noise and it's not leaking from weep hole, another head scratcher. Fan doesn't kick on as much as it used to, but when thermostat goes to half way it kicks on. Tested the fan and it's solid, but I do wonder if it could be the issue as well, like I said it used to be constantly kicking on, to where I didn't think it was getting warm enough, now it only kicks on when thermostat is halfway.

marc abrams

The fan not coming on till the temperature is higher than usual a may be a bad coolant sensor. Use a OBD 2 scanner to see what it's reading. Does that truck have a cooling system that needs to blead?