Cleaning the water jacket - The casting of the Studebaker V8 allows water to circulate around each cylinder. They are not the compacted 'siamese' cylinder design of the Chevy Small block or the Ford 289. The engine is mounted at such an angle, that it allows a good deal of sediment to deposit at the bottom rear of the water jacket. Time and poor maintenance practices will cause this deposit to solidify, considerably, causing cooling problems and in severe cases, engine damage to the most affected rear cylinders. The Studebaker engine has a drain plug on either side of the block at the rear of the engine. You should remove the starter to access the drivers side. Usually after the plugs are removed, nothing happens because a pasty rust mud is blocking the hole. Using 1/2" bottle brushes can ease the initial drain. A more thorough method is to remove the freeze plugs and have a garden hose connected to the upper system to flush the garbage out as you poke and scrape. Even better is to remove the heads, which gives top down access. ------- Avanti - tight spaces underneath - Hawk - much more room - Definitely dig and scrape out the accumulated and compacted rust and crud in the water jacket, especially around the two reat cylinders on each side. You have to be agressive to get it all, using screwdrivers, heavy wires bent to get to the backside of the cylinder walls. This stuff can be so compacted that it will superficially appear to be part of the casting. Stan Gundry - March 2002 -------- /////////I have just wrenched in some of the copper dorman freeze plugs on my 64 Daytona. I have a question for those experianced with these just how tight should they be I believe I have at least fifty pounds on the 1/2 inch small nut and the area around the nut is dimpled in a little. Are they tight enough? Too tight? Or is it a case of, if it don't leak its tight enough? This is a job a recommend to any Stude if its never been done when I took that back plug out it litterally pooped a nasty long one on me from the hole. There was a lot of crud in there. This on a car with only 24,500 miles, which might have been part of the problem. Thanks Steve Barber///////////// ---------- Steve, Pull all the freeze plugs, and get on some old clothes! Use an old long skinny screwdriver, and a piece of wire and dig out as much of the old crap in there. Use a water hose and keep digging and washing the block out! Its a dirty nasty job, but once done, it will help keep the engine from over heating. As far as the torque on the new freeze plugs? Are you installing the screw in ones? Jim Turner -------- Yes it was a very dirty job. I used a coat hanger and a lot of water. Crimping the hose until it built up pressure and letting it blast in the block holes really seemed to clean it out. I now understand why the meat thermometer read so much higher at the back of the block than the front. You think Studebaker's engineers where this astute when they put the temp sensor back there or was it because it was closer to the gauges? Thanks Steve Barber --- Fifty pounds!? Is this foot pounds? Can't believe they would stand this much. Dorman recommends not turning the half inch nut more than three complete turns. They claim they are completely expanded by the third complete turn. Ted --- Ted, Not foot pounds, I have know idea how tight they are as its impossible to get much under there. I have to be pretty close to two and a half turns. I ruined one as it came out when I tightened to hard. But they now seem tight and flush. Steve ---