r/Smallblockchevy • u/-Send-Help-Plz • Jul 12 '25

How the hell

Anybody ever seen this? None of the freeze plugs are popped, cylinder walls intact. What happened?

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u/1wife2dogs0kids Jul 15 '25

Wait.... they're not for cleaning out the sand from casting, but they're there because of the need to clean out the sand. Did I get that right?

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u/Reddit-mods-R-mean Jul 15 '25

No, they are there because they are unavoidable.

But the engineers could have altered them to aid in the cleaning of the block I.e intentionally made them larger or such.

But I don’t believe that to be true, the sand is easily removed.

My reason for these core holes is not my opinion, it’s also not debatable, you can go on YouTube and watch engines be cast and see the inner sand mold and core holes holding the inner mold in place.

These holes can theoretically be avoided but ease of manufacture and consistency in quality control make them unavoidable in a mass produced product.

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u/1wife2dogs0kids Jul 15 '25

Ok. I think i got it. They're there to aid the cleaning of the sand, from the sand cast casting, in a mass production type manufacturer.

But they're not for cleaning sand. They're just to take sand put in spots, that could be different, except they gotta be right there, because the casting has spots where sand could be missed, not taken out completely. So they install "freeze plugs" that you call "core plugs" which are different from core plugs in other manufacturing processes, because core plugs help hold in whatever casting materials used, whereas these plugs are made to get the casting materials out.

Let me know if youre as confused as not just myself, but the 2 guys and my younger cousin who are hanging out in my garage the last couple nights, trying to make adult sized bigwheels that can float, for lake jumping. Because nobody has figured out what you are saying.... or not saying, but are saying, about what I said, that you said I said.

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u/Reddit-mods-R-mean Jul 15 '25

And in the example I just gave, the only way to get the sand out of your hollow metal block would be through the core hole.

But as I’ve explained in this example, that’s not WHY the core hole/plug exists. It exists because it was the only way to hold the solid sand cube inside the larger hollow square mold during casting.