Guess I'm looking at head gaskets

Well to all that said it was the heads, it turns out it wasn't. It's the block. #6 water jacket is cracked. That's why I was getting only steam and a light milkshake on the inside of the valve cover. And yes, it is a TD block. Now to ponder the next move.

I've got 6 of them new in the box. The problem isn't with the liner. It's with the block and the coolant sleeve. It's cracked about 35% around the bore.

If you can get one super cheap to my door, I'd consider it. Otherwise I'll probably let the truck sit till I work out what I'm going to do.

Sorry to hear about your block . Don't know exactly have bad the crack is or how deep but you may be able to stitch it which means you drill a series of holes in the crack thead them for screws cut the heads off and flush them off. On the other hand if you don't want to keep the liners bring them back for a full refund. Give me a call if you need help.

I'm going to make a few calls to see if anyone can weld it for me. I don't think the tooling could be used inside the bore. The water jacket doesn't have to be precise. Just the sleeve and top ridge to lock it in place. Here's a pic.

Ouch. Sorry about your engine.

Sure sorry to hear about your block, but welding it in that spot is not the best repair, as it seems to be on extension, and possibly that spot is just weak. Maybe someone has a loose good used block out there they can help you with.

Good luck.

ALFA2

I've welded cast iron in the past with mixed results. I've had great experiences with manifolds. But the one block I tried to weld just kept on cracking. I've been browsing and I'm considering throwing a few more bucks at this block and give this a try...

Cast Iron Engine Block Welding

It can't hurt to try. You never know what might work.

I picked up some hobart nomacast welding rod from tractor supply today. I'm going to find some cast junk in the scrap pile to fracture and take a shot at welding it. My thoughts now are to drill out the ends of the crack. V grind the crack out with a dremel tool. Clean it out with parts cleaner. Then brush it down with a stainless steel brush. I'll place two tacks towards the center most section of the crack. Then slowly make 1/4"-1/2" beads at a time. I'll peen and brush them after welding. And wait until the bore is cool enough to place my hand on again before starting the next segment. The only downside is that nomacast says it's not for machining. I plan on taking the air grinder and grinding the welds down smooth. (To allow the sleeve to be reisntalled) I'm thinking about also coating the grinded down welds with jb-weld. Then apply a bit of high temp silicone to the outside of the sleeve before install. My thoughts are that the welds will hopefully stabilize the crack. The JB weld will tend to any pinholes. And the silicone will act as a glue/patch between the repair and the sleeve. I'm also going to toss a bottle of alumiseal in the coolant system.

I've been studying about welding cast and the only way to do it right is to have the entire part preheated, welded, then post heated, and slowly cooled to work out any stress fractures. Unfortunately, it's just not feasible with a block. I honestly believe I could get away with drilling the cracks, V'ing out, and just putting jb-weld in the crack. (Then use silcone on the liner and the alumiseal) But I'm concerned with the tensile stress the head will apply at the crack when it's torqued back down.

If anyone has real world experience welding cast, please let me know.

You gonna come out to my place, lower the deuce down on the front, pull the front clip, fight with an engine hoist rolling on dirt? Not to mention all the rest of tearing down another engine. I'd rather spend another couple of hours repairing this block.

Or are you gonna give me a free engine? LOL

patracy said:

You gonna come out to my place, lower the deuce down on the front, pull the front clip, fight with an engine hoist rolling on dirt? Not to mention all the rest of tearing down another engine. I'd rather spend another couple of hours repairing this block.

Or are you gonna give me a free engine? LOL

Click to expand...

That sounds like FUN Pa.....

patracy said:

You gonna come out to my place, lower the deuce down on the front, pull the front clip, fight with an engine hoist rolling on dirt? Not to mention all the rest of tearing down another engine. I'd rather spend another couple of hours repairing this block.

Or are you gonna give me a free engine? LOL

Click to expand...

I was going to use a wrecker to remove the engine, myself. But, why not give it a try? It may work.

dabtl said:

I was going to use a wrecker to remove the engine, myself. But, why not give it a try? It may work.

Click to expand...

You've obviously never used a cherry picker on dirt. They have a hard time rolling unloaded.

Update in a sec, let me get to my phone.

Got started on the repair, but the weather isn't going to allow me to work. I started with the nomacast rods playing with some old junk. I welded on a section of cast iron pipe, brake rotor, cast iron lift block, and a bad engine rod. I've only got a Lincoln ac welder, but it seems that the rod worked best at 90amps. The cast iron pipe was the only one that I wondered about. The weld, not iron, cracked. A second pass cleared it up without a crack. The other stuff welded fine at 105 amps (it was thicker).

So I started prepping the block. I drilled out both ends of the crack. Then I took the dremel tool and grooved the crack. I then sprayed it all down with parts cleaner and brushed it with a SS brush. I got one tack in the middle of the hole before it started raining. I don't want to risk a raindrop cracking a hot weld, so I've postponed things for now. Tomorrow I've got to help move my sister, but maybe I'll get back in time to start working again on it.

The gameplan is to spot weld it very slowly. Grind the welds down flush. Fill the sides with jb weld. Cover with painters tape (to keep it from running). File the jb-weld smooth. Then coat the inside of the new liner with high temp silicone. Then fill the coolant system with just water and alumiseal. Since the engine runs cool, I'm thinking about running without the rad cap as well until everything is seated in. The welding session will take a while to do. But my tack was cool enough to touch in a minute or less. It appears the nomacast rods elasticity is great. Everything I did was without pre and post heat. I'm going to take it very slowly. It might take me working on and off all weekend to get this done. But I think it's worth a shot.

I got the bead ran around the hole. Didn't crack anymore (that I can see). But it did get porous in some areas. I tried making another pass, but it keeps on penetrating too deep in the metal. So rather than temp fate any further I just ground it down flush and honed the bore. Then I coated it with a layer of jb weld. I'm going to hone it tomorrow once it's cured to get things flush. Then apply another coat of jb weld and hone once more.