The TOO dump thread
- Thread starter hickslawns
- Start date
Fuggin jeep decided to throw a freeze plug at the NC SC line. Sitting at a gas station trying to figure out what the fuck to do.
I'm now on 77 in beckley WV. The kindness and hospitality of the people in the south is levels above what we have at home. I will type up the rest of the story once I'm home. So far so good. Should be home around 11:30.
Save travels buddy, spent 12 hours on that route yesterday and the daughter and her boyfriend should be on 95 heading to 26 about now...
Damn Steve... good luck man. Hope it works out for you. But what the hell is a freeze plug anyway?
A freeze plug is about the size of a nickel or so. It is adhered into the block of your vehicle. If your water/antifreeze mix is off and water starts to freeze and expand in the block. . . It is designed to pop out rather than crack a block. Sometimes they work themselves out. They may have other purposes as well which I am not familiar with.
Since I started with this thread then I will continue it here, but in all actuality it deserves to be in the TOO GOOD thread with the way it turned out. Sorry it's such a book. Phil should be proud.
I knew going into the trip that this would probably be the last long haul this jeep would take. Its a 04 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the 4.0 that is sporting 188K miles on it. Not in the manner that I expected problems but just knew she's dependable but wasn't sure what a couple of 650 mile marathons would do to her. So a month before I took it to my mechanic and had him do a full once over. New plugs, check brakes, rotate tires, all the necessities. It was a good thing I did as we found out the oil pan was about to rust through. So I ordered a new oil pan and had them take care of it.
We made it down there with no hiccups. I came home from work on Friday got her all packed up laid down around 9 pm and got a hours rest. Pulled out and on the road a little after 10. Drove straight through and got to to Myrtle about 10:30 am. Had a great time with the family and got to enjoy several good beers that I can't find here in Ohio.
So the family and I are about an hour and a half into our trip home from Myrtle Beach. Cruising up 38. I had my cruise set for 66-67 MPH. Where hit a small town where we the speed limit went down to 45. As we where coming out of the town I had just passed a semi and hit my resume button and started switching lanes. My transmission instantly drops into passing gear and revs the motor to over 4500 RPM. Then we hear something hit the bottom of the floorboard a couple times. I thought I had thrown a rock or even one of the reflectors off the road as changing lanes. I looked behind us and saw a small puff of smoke. Nothing that I thought suspicious. The wife was getting hungry and asked me to stop so we could grab some lunch. The next town was about 9 miles away. So as I'm rolling I'm looking down and checking my gauges and nothing's looking abnormal. We get to where we are slowing down to come into the next town and I start hearing a weird sound. My engine starts loosing power. The motor dies and I coast up to a parking spot at a gas station right at the front door. As I stop smoke starts rolling out from under the hood.
I get out and pop the hood and there is smoke coming from under the intake and exhaust manifolds. It smells like burning rubber. So I start investing, at first I notice moisture but not in a large quantity. I can't see any busted hoses and everything from the front differential forward is dry as a bone.
A clerk from the gas station comes out and tries helping figure it out. What I know is I can't touch anything till this thing cools down. At this point when I turned the key on the temp gauge was pegged. I could tell there was very little water, due to the fact I could squeeze the top hose and there was no pressure.
This is where the start of southern hospitality starts up. The clerk that was trying to help me gets on the phone and calls the father in law of another clerk who was supposed to work on cars. As we are waiting we get a bucket of water. I get the radiator cap off. I start pouring in water and a few seconds later it was pouring out the side of the block as fast as I was pouring it in. At this point I knew I either had a cracked block or possibly a freeze plug blew.
Got on the phone with AAA. That was a joke and ultimately ended up not using it.
The clerk's father in law shows up, I get it jacked up and he sees that one of the freeze plugs was gone. He starts calling around and finds one. I told him if he would take me to the store I'd buy the plug and the tools necessary for me to fix it. He tells me don't worry I got all my tools in the back of my truck. I'll be right back.
He comes back with the plug with his tools I was able to get the new plug in and tightened. I start filling and there's no water coming out. Got it topped off and now the moment of truth.
Knowing I had driven this engine almost 9 miles with zero coolant liquid in it and heated it to the point of shut down. Will she start and run.
Sure as shit that 4.0 turned over fired up and ran like nothing had happened.
I couldn't believe how things played out. Gave the guy $60 for the parts and the tool usage. Huge thank yous to the crew at that gas station. Can't say enough about kindness and selflessness I experienced today. It is great to know there are still those kids da people out there.
Made it home with no other problems and pulled into the drive about 11:33
I knew going into the trip that this would probably be the last long haul this jeep would take. Its a 04 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the 4.0 that is sporting 188K miles on it. Not in the manner that I expected problems but just knew she's dependable but wasn't sure what a couple of 650 mile marathons would do to her. So a month before I took it to my mechanic and had him do a full once over. New plugs, check brakes, rotate tires, all the necessities. It was a good thing I did as we found out the oil pan was about to rust through. So I ordered a new oil pan and had them take care of it.
We made it down there with no hiccups. I came home from work on Friday got her all packed up laid down around 9 pm and got a hours rest. Pulled out and on the road a little after 10. Drove straight through and got to to Myrtle about 10:30 am. Had a great time with the family and got to enjoy several good beers that I can't find here in Ohio.
So the family and I are about an hour and a half into our trip home from Myrtle Beach. Cruising up 38. I had my cruise set for 66-67 MPH. Where hit a small town where we the speed limit went down to 45. As we where coming out of the town I had just passed a semi and hit my resume button and started switching lanes. My transmission instantly drops into passing gear and revs the motor to over 4500 RPM. Then we hear something hit the bottom of the floorboard a couple times. I thought I had thrown a rock or even one of the reflectors off the road as changing lanes. I looked behind us and saw a small puff of smoke. Nothing that I thought suspicious. The wife was getting hungry and asked me to stop so we could grab some lunch. The next town was about 9 miles away. So as I'm rolling I'm looking down and checking my gauges and nothing's looking abnormal. We get to where we are slowing down to come into the next town and I start hearing a weird sound. My engine starts loosing power. The motor dies and I coast up to a parking spot at a gas station right at the front door. As I stop smoke starts rolling out from under the hood.
I get out and pop the hood and there is smoke coming from under the intake and exhaust manifolds. It smells like burning rubber. So I start investing, at first I notice moisture but not in a large quantity. I can't see any busted hoses and everything from the front differential forward is dry as a bone.
A clerk from the gas station comes out and tries helping figure it out. What I know is I can't touch anything till this thing cools down. At this point when I turned the key on the temp gauge was pegged. I could tell there was very little water, due to the fact I could squeeze the top hose and there was no pressure.
This is where the start of southern hospitality starts up. The clerk that was trying to help me gets on the phone and calls the father in law of another clerk who was supposed to work on cars. As we are waiting we get a bucket of water. I get the radiator cap off. I start pouring in water and a few seconds later it was pouring out the side of the block as fast as I was pouring it in. At this point I knew I either had a cracked block or possibly a freeze plug blew.
Got on the phone with AAA. That was a joke and ultimately ended up not using it.
The clerk's father in law shows up, I get it jacked up and he sees that one of the freeze plugs was gone. He starts calling around and finds one. I told him if he would take me to the store I'd buy the plug and the tools necessary for me to fix it. He tells me don't worry I got all my tools in the back of my truck. I'll be right back.
He comes back with the plug with his tools I was able to get the new plug in and tightened. I start filling and there's no water coming out. Got it topped off and now the moment of truth.
Knowing I had driven this engine almost 9 miles with zero coolant liquid in it and heated it to the point of shut down. Will she start and run.
Sure as shit that 4.0 turned over fired up and ran like nothing had happened.
I couldn't believe how things played out. Gave the guy $60 for the parts and the tool usage. Huge thank yous to the crew at that gas station. Can't say enough about kindness and selflessness I experienced today. It is great to know there are still those kids da people out there.
Made it home with no other problems and pulled into the drive about 11:33
Last edited:
Ricer2231
Senior Member
