Hey Guys,

I have a problem under the hood. I'm hearing exhaust noises on the opposite side of the engine from where the header is located. A guy told me that it may be a welch plug gone bad, he said the 1.6L suzuki engines were plagued with this problem. Unfortunately he wasn't able to tell me exactly what the welch plug is and where on the engine is it located. The sounds seem to be coming from behind the intake manifold close to the firewall.

I'd like to get this prob sorted as it has my zuk sounding like a heep   Could the welch plug be an EGR valve?

Zukk

I had to do a Google on "Welch Plug", I had never heard of that one before :-/

The most common reference on Google says, Welch Plug = Freeze Plug.

I'm not sure what a freeze plug can do but leak or completely come out and dump all of the coolant.

What exactly do you mean by exhaust noises?

How's it idling?

Could it be an intake manifold gasket or a head gasket?

There is an EGR passage that goes
through the head and into the intake
manifold, I don't know what a Welch
plug is, sounds like a muffler bearing,
you might not what to use that guy
for your repairs, for a fix, try to tighten
the intake nuts/bolts in the back where
the EGR comes through,  and Plagued
I don't think I've ever heard of this problem

Wild

I had to do a Google on "Welch Plug", I had never heard of that one before :-/

The most common reference on Google says, Welch Plug = Freeze Plug.

I'm not sure what a freeze plug can do but leak or completely come out and dump all of the coolant.

What exactly do you mean by exhaust noises?

How's it idling?

Could it be an intake manifold gasket or a head gasket?

The noises are like if you loosened your header gasket, only thing the noise is coming from the opposite side of the engine. Had my exhaust system checked out today and it was ok. It idles very rough, and occasionaly hestiates on move off.

There is an EGR passage that goes
through the head and into the intake
manifold, I don't know what a Welch
plug is, sounds like a muffler bearing,
you might not what to use that guy
for your repairs, for a fix, try to tighten
the intake nuts/bolts in the back where
the EGR comes through,  and Plagued
I don't think I've ever heard of this problem

Wild

I think i mispelt the welch, its actually welsh. I'll try tightening the nuts in the back in the morning if my hands can fit behind there. Apparently the plaque only affected the 1.6L engines destined for 3rd world countries, in particular (The Caribbean)

Zukk  

It idles very rough, and occasionaly hestiates on move off.

I'd do a vacuum and compression check.

I think i mispelt the welch, its actually welsh 

You may want to Google this yourself (if you already haven't).  Welsh seems to pretty much equal Welch, which seems to refer to a plug for a hole, whether it be in a block, carburetor, gearbox, or whatever.

I've never looked for the freeze (Welch/Welsh) plugs in the block, let alone any on the head or throttle body.  It sounds very odd, but who knows.  I think I'll look at my '90 manual, and the car, a little closer later and see what I can find.

Sounds like what we would call a core plug. One of those gone bad will definately dump your coolant but exhaust noises are a different problem.