No one else may find this amusing, but I was disassembling a block that I want to build for a spare. After checking for cracks and overall condition I decided to pop out the freeze plugs. I typically just drive a screw driver into the center of them and pry them out. The first 2 came out as the normally do. The screw drive didn’t penetrate the back one. After applying a little more swing speed and breaking the tip off my craftsman screw driver, I decided to drill a hole in the freeze plug. It still wouldn’t budge so I threaded a 3/8” bolt into it and pulled it out. Here’s what I found. The hole was machined that deep from the factory. Think someone was trying to cover up their mistake?

All of Ford's automatic boring/drilling equipment was set up to drill to an exact depth, so I don't think it's a hand drilled hole.

Don't know what to think of it really, but somebody sure didn't want it to leak!

Could have been a defect somewhere back in the blocks history. Looks like it was a good repair. Install some new freeze plugs and you will be fine.

Kenny, you have good news and bad news about------ the Craftsman screw driver, good news it's guaranteed, bad news you get it replaced with china junk.

I suspect it was a casting defect. The holes are actually core supports to hold the water jacket core. They probably didn’t realize that they had a problem until the final stages of machining, and rather than throw away the work they had done, it was easy to just machine it a little deeper and install extra plugs.
I get a smile from the term “Frost plug “. In reality they are “core plugs”. The chance that they will save a block from freeze damage is close to ZERO !! Yes possible, but usually the water jacket splits on the other side. I’ve seen lots of those!!!

I've re-cut several over the years to re-seat rusted blocks, not as deep as that but deep enough that 2 plugs can be fitted.

Now that Sears has closed it's stores, you can still get Craftsman tools at ACE hardware. I don't know if the guarantee still applies.
Norm
Looks to me like someone didn't want it to look wrong so put two plugs in that hole. You can do likewise if you don't like the sunken look of one.
Norm

The original Craftsman Guarantee was good for breakage of the tool during “normal” use. Hammering on the handle of a screwdriver and using it as a punch is not normal use......though I know all of us have done that!

As I said in my original post, the hole was machined at the factory that way. I assume that someone didn’t have the tooling set correctly and then hid their mistake by adding 3 plugs to the hole to make it look correct.

The proper name for the plug is “Welch” plug. I was afraid that people may not know what that was. I’ve never seen any of these ever save any engine from freeze damage. Not sure how they got the name.

I was at a local Lowes store yesterday that looked like a craftsman store. A fellow was returning screwdrivers under warranty. The sales person was helping with the return but was unsure of the mans complaint. Hate to see Lowes loose their Kobalt brand.