Freeze Plug Woe's

So, recently, I let my car run a little too long without proper coolant levels in it, needless to say, one of the freeze plugs rusted through. I swapped this one out, with everything in the car, but after I finished that, I noticed the one right behind it was leaking too. Since I dont feel like doing this job more then one more time, I'm going to pull the engine and swap out all of the frost plugs. Heres my questions:

-How many Frost plugs are in the motor, and what sizes (this includes the ones in the bell housing
-Is there any advice I can get on making this job easier on myself
-Anything I should REALLY swap out while I've got the motor out, and if so, what should I get for stuff?

Thanks guys,

Chris

If you left it without antifreeze so long the freeze plugs corroded, I would worry about the radiator, heater core, and water pump.

Well, heres the deal with that. The Water Pump and Radiator are both fairly new (less then 5000 Miles) I did the headgasket about 1000 miles ago. This is just because I live where it is always cold.

Bump

there are 5 in the dr. side of block, one in the rear. one in back of the head. they look to be around 2"'s. i suggest using brass plugs, this way they do the job of closing the block, and will not rust out again. also, flush the motor to help remove any garbage in it.

There is no way there is 5 in the side of the block. Sorry if I wasn't specific. This is an 87 4.0

there should be five and one in the head.MJ is right.

You can get a kit (brass) Dorman or Sealed Power from RockAuto.com for about $15

Just an update on this. It took WAYY TOO long. I'll have pics up here in the next couple of days. First of all, ALMOST everything came out with ease. The only problem we ran into was the Top Tranny to Motor bolts. They are REALLY hard to get too, and on top of that, they are inverted torx's heads. Fucking stupid design. The one on the drivers side was actually not too difficult, I used the bit, a universal joint, and a 3 foot extension with a 3/8's impact to get it out. The one on the other side, which is quite a bit harder to reach was not so friendly. This had quite a few wires/hoses and other stupid things in the way that made it a bitch. 4 hours on one fucking bolt, but we finally got it out by jacking up on the motor, removing both of the motor mounts from the sub-frame, and then lowering the motor down as far as we could to get to it from the top. Then we used a few different tools, and it eventually came free. How did I know that the ONLY bolt holding that fucking motor in the car would be the one we would have a problem with. I swear, this was the last bolt to remove. So, finaly got the motor out. To Clarify for all of those people who will have this question in the future, NO ONE HERE WAS CORRECT ABOUT THE NUMBER OF FREEZE PLUGS IN THE MOTOR. THERE ARE 3 2" FREEZE PLUGS IN THE SIDE OF THE BLOCK AS WELL AS 2 1" FREEZE PLUGS. IN THE BACK OF THE BLOCK, THERE IS 1 MORE 2" FREEZE PLUG, AND ONE THAT IS JUST A HAIR LARGER. I'M NOT SURE WHAT SIZE IT IS, BUT I GOT IT FROM MY LOCAL JEEP DEALER. THERE IS ALSO 1 MORE 2" PLUG IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD. Now, my only concern is that the jeep doesn't heat up enough. It has the proper level of coolant in it now, and I removed the AC crap, including the condenser. I'm wondering if this is the cause, or if I just need to put in a new thermostat.

Some other points,

-Jeep stands for "JUST ENOUGH ENGINEERING PROBLEMS"
-My 87 Waggy seems to run the same, regardless of the order you plug the injector wires in.
-There is a vaccum line running to a bracket that is on the firewall, very near the hood just off to the drivers side of center. If this is not installed, the jeep will not run correctly.
-A/C takes up way to much room, and comes out easier with a cutting wheel then a wrench.
-I really hate those damn injector clips. I'm going to buy a set of these
-My jeep and I have a love/hate relationship. She loves to make me hate her.

Other then all of that, the project went smoothly, took about 12-13 hours from the first bolt to the last to take it out, change all of the frost plugs, scrape the oil pan gasket, clean the oil pan, inspect the rear main, inspect timing chain, clean everything and reinstall. Then about 1-2 hours of cleanup/troubleshooting. Fun day.

OKAY. since you apperently CAN NOT count and seem to be convinced that YOU are the only one with a brain ( most likely FROZEN, judging by your additude,) GO BACK AND read THE FORTH POST ABOVE YOUR LAST ONE. I stated that there are FIVE (5) plugs in the side of the block, and you respond by saying that there is no way for there to be 5 plugs, but then, you ACTUALLY count out how plugs you found- THREE (3) about 2" in dia. and TWO (2) that were smaller. Now maybe in MAINE, you can add 3 plus 2 and get some other number, but for the REST of the world, as far as most people know, 3 plus 2 equals 5! And is a plug in the back of the head, and one inside the bell housing area ( didn't I already say this?). Next time, BEFORE you sound off and call B/S on something YOU MIGHT WANT TO ACTUALLY READ THE POST, RESEARCH IT, and THEN think before you get smart with a reponse. The kind of response that you gave to EVERYBODY that offered help is not a way to become someone that people would not to respond to the next time that you have an issue.

Alright. Here goes.

I apologize, I was wrong when I said there cannot be 5 plugs in the side of the block.
Heres my reasoning:
You said:

they look to be around 2"'s

Click to expand...

This to me, says NOTHING at all about any different sized plugs. I saw the (3) 2" Plugs. There was no way there could have been 5 of them. (which there wasn't in the side)
If you'd like a picture reference Click Here

You also mentioned that there was one behind the bellhousing, and one in the back of the head. This is also incorrect. There is one in the head, but there is 2 in the back of the block behind the bellhousing. One of them is 2" but the other ~2.14" (9/64)
So, whats needed is:
(5) 2" Plugs
(1) 2 9/64" Plug
(2) 1" Plugs

I got this answer from NO ONE here. I really was not trying to step on anyones toes with that last post, but you've forced be to be an asshole now. So, yes, I was wrong when I said there was no way there was 5 in the side of the block. That was before I had the motor out, and I apologize for that. BUT- you were wrong on 2 counts. You mentioned nothing of sizes, and stated there were 7 plugs, not the actual 8.

Anyway, for everyone else, I took some pictures, I meant to have a finally done picture with the clock, but by then, we were so drained, we decided to just get it together and go home.
Gallery

For the record that plug over to the right side of the block in the bell housing area is for the CAMSHAFT, not the cooling system. It seldom rusts out, but change it if you like. As for the measurements that I stated, they were an eye-balled item. I am also sorry that the expression of 2"s was miss understood, as this was meant as the "guess" of measurement, not number of plugs. Apperently, the size of the freeze plugs varies, as several of my inline sixes have the same number of plugs, but one of the motors does use a set of smaller plugs, (granted it is the 1973 CJ-5) and all of my 4.0 motors, including MY 1988 and 1987 XJ's use the same size of plugs. Since your motor has the mis-match sized plugs, it possible that you have one of the early production 4.0 motors, as these were built from the 4.2 that was being used in the YJ at the time, and were a minor re-tooling of the original AMC casting. If you look, you will find that there are actually 2 blocks in use in 1987, the early and the late 4.0.The later motor block had the more common plug design, meaning that they were all the same size, EXCEPT for the camshaft gallery plug, which is the larger of the plugs in the back of the block, all the way to the right hand side.

My 79 CJ5 had only 3 frost plugs. This is an 87 XJ. It should be the same. I mean, does anyone know if they changed the casting, and WHEN on the 242's?

BTW, sorry if I came across harsh.

I know that you are probably getting tired of me posting, but, I have one last item for you too consider: sitting in my garage is the complete engine from an '87 YJ. Not too special, except, that it has the 4.0 acc. bracket bosses cast on it, has the same size freeze plugs everywhere except the camshaft gallery, BUT (!) it has the 4.2 early style head gasket area on the driver side of the block. If you look at the edge of the block on the driver's side, front to rear, the 4.0 and the LATE 4.2 is straight on this edge, the earlier 4.2/258" and 232" blocks are kind of "wavy". This is interesting because of the edge. If you go to the parts house and get the head gasket for the 4.2, there is a very good chance that you will need to know the type of edge on the block/head, because the 4.0 was built using the later style block intro'd in the may/june time of 1987, and the YJ was using BOTH styles of block. So, you could have either block, possibly. Hence the difference in freeze plug sizes.
I guess that we all have bad days. Try dealing with the idiots that "drive" on the interstates allday, try not to give into running them over, and that will stress you out something QUICK.