Leaking 2a

All,
thanks a lot.

Rather than jumping the (welding) gun, we went to the local bowls club for dinner. If you ever pass through Moura, I can recommend the risoles.

Decided against welding (man ... I am itching to try my 12/24V MIG gun). After cleaning it up I saw that it was alloy and I didn't have the right welding wire with me.

Someone suggested QuckieSteel ... great stuff ... used the whole sausage ... even molded a little twist handle ;-) Just in case I get brave and want to unscrew that thing

The good news for me is that Quckiesteel will set in 4 mins and even under water. So even if the filling blows out while driving, I can have it back on the road within an hour. Just need to have enough water with me.

The whole is definitely in the plug, not the block and I have no idea how it got there. It is alloy, so it shouldn't have rusted away.

Will wait until tomorrow morning before I feel the cooling system and go for a test run through town.

Again .. thanks for all your input and suggestions. It has brought me closer to my graby (green baby).

Dante

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dante

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The whole is definitely in the plug, not the block and I have no idea how it got there. It is alloy, so it shouldn't have rusted away.
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Dante

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If you have cast iron and aluminium alloy in electrical contact and immersed in water (which is exactly what you have here) you have an electrochemical cell or battery, which will dissolve the alloy, which is the lower metal in the electrochemical series. How rapidly this occurs depends mainly on the conductivity of the water in the system (and the temperature).

It can be prevented almost completely by the use of corrosion inhibitors present in all modern coolants - but this was not the case for the 2a -- "Use soft water wherever possible; if the local water supply is hard, rain or distilled water should be used" (Series 2a Owners Manual Part No 4482). Most owners would have used whatever water was available, especially if it was using a bit of water.

John

I would prefer to have this plug corode away rather than the block itself. It is in this case working as a sacrificial component. The plug is for the redundant heater core hole. It should be a BSP plug, which uses a Whitworh threadform. A hardware store or plumbing centre will have a plug for this. Mine is now brass, as there other threaded plugs that are aluminium to sacrifice themselves elsewhere.

Be careful when purchasing a new plug, as BSP is measured by the nominal internal pipe diameter, not he external diameter of the thread. Thus 1/2" BSP measures more than 1/2" accross the thread.

The 1" British Standard Conduit Thread (16 TPI) plugs are the two to the left of your broken plug, and above the cup welsch plugs. These are also aluminium and prone to corroding through.
Aaron.

G'day All, Aaron just for your info on the early 2 1/4 blocks (as fitted to S2) the plugs on the side of the block are 2 different sizes, the one closest to the front is 1" x 16TPI Conduit, but the other closer to the redundant heater plug is a different size again (much larger than 1") and I had to make my own tap from silver steel to rethread it again, the aluminium plugs were available but no taps, anyway that problem has was fixed 3 years ago and so far so good it doesn't leak cheers Dennis:wasntme:
PS The plugs in question are the same sizes 1" x 16 TPI in the later model S2A and S3 2 1/4lt engine.