MX5200 Block Heater Install - Extra metal behind the freeze plug?

[kmx5200]

I bought my MX5200 around 2019.

I started to install a block heater freeze plug this weekend after watching videos online and I have removed freeze plugs from car engines before so thought it would be easy enough to do. I removed the starter to have more room to access the left side, 3rd from front freeze plug. Getting the original freeze plug out was very difficult because I couldn't get it to flip. Eventually I chiseled away at the inside edge of the plug until I caught it enough I could pry it out.

Once the freeze plug was out, I see why it would not flip out when hit. There's extra metal behind the freeze plug. I've not seen this with car engines and it wasn't like this in any videos I've watched.

Is this normal on new Kubota engines? I haven't been able to find pictures or videos like it online.
A casting mistake?

Should I cut away some of the extra metal prior to installing the block heater? I don't think I need to because the block heater doesn't protrude past the sleeve that is hammered into the freeze plug hole and it only needs to touch some of the antifreeze to heat it all.

 

[kmx5200]

 

[kmx5200]

What's left in the above picture is NOT the freeze plug. That part did come out. Unfortunately I beat on this part of the block more than I should have, but I think overall it's ok...

 

[#40Fan]

After looking at what the kit includes, I don't think you'll need to do anything with the block. But, I would do everything I could to make sure to get all of the air out that will be trapped in the sleeve.

 

[kmx5200]

Thanks!
I should have linked the kit so that you didn't need to look it up. Part Number 70000-00297 https://www.messicks.com/parts/kubota/70000-00297

The heater doesn't protrude past the sleeve so even with the block casting, it will still fit.

 

[whitetiger]

That is the way the block is made; it makes removing the soft plug a little tricky. You just take a center punch and tap it through the center of the soft plug to make a hole. I use a pointed alignment bar and drive it into the hole, enlarging it some and pry the plug out, moving the bar horizontally. They will pop right out.
I then thread a square-headed pipe plug into the sleeve, clean the hole where the soft plug was removed from, put a small bead of Loctite around the sleeve, and drive it into the block.

A little sealer on the threads of the heating element and screw it into the sleeve. Refill with coolant and plug the heater into an extension cord to check for proper operation.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

From my understanding, the term "freeze plug" is kind of a "misnomer".

I was taught/told, (way, way back in the day), that they are/should be called "core plugs" because they are not there to protect against freezing, but are in fact a "necessary byproduct" of the casting process, and only there by necessity.

So if that is/was true, I could see how some extra metal would occasionally be behind the "freeze plug"


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