I am at the point of connecting my heater hoses and ran into a little problem. I could not get the plug out of the intake manifold that my engine builder put in, so that I can install a fitting for the hose. I tried penetrating oil, heat, impact driver, nothing even budged this thing.

So I thought I'd take the neck off to look at the back side of this plug. Lo and behold, it looks like there is sand in the intake coolant passage. The neck doesn't look much better. This is the condition that the engine arrived to me. I have not run it, have not added coolant, oil or anything yet. I'm sure I'll have to add a filter to this to get all the crud that is hiding in this engine. Really disappointed in this condition, because I paid top dollar for a custom build from, what I thought was a reputable builder. Now, I'm not so sure.

So, 2 questions. How am I going to get this plug out and should I be concerned that this engine is going to puke on me? I've lost confidence in this builder.

20241106_102034.jpg20241106_102042.jpg20241106_102139.jpg20241106_102305.jpg