Noticed this morning when I went out to my shop there was a small (milk cap) amount of coolant on the floor underneath the transmission. Up on checking it out I noticed it was wet around the front of the block where there is a Ford engine block heater. Is it hard to replace or can a person drain down the engine and just replace the soft plug instead of replacing the heater? Looks like if you take off the right front tire and protecter flap it might not be too bad. Any comments? Merry Christmas

 

Yes, you can remove the block heater core plug and replace with a regular core plug or rubber expansion plug

Drain coolant, all of it, or as much as possible, but some will come out of the open core hole when its removed
If it's leaking then it is rusted out so you can usually push a screw driver or ??, thru it and then pry it out
Sand/clean off the rim/edge of the hole, install the new one
Refill with water if temps are not going below freezing, drive it for a few days, at least 2 heat up and cool downs
If its holding drain and refill with coolant

 

It was the rubber O ring around the block heater so I replaced the whole heater with a new one and that solved the leak.

 

OHV or SOHC ? What year, what part number? ...if you please.
Block heaters are hard to find.

 

2007 4.0 sohc, Kat's Freeze P{lug Heater #11458, got mine off of Rock Auto but they are out of stock and Amazon does not show that number. It is 1 1/2"-38mm size.