Silly(?) thought

[f350flatbed]

So I have a hole in my block. Why does that matter? The hole is right above the oil pan. Is this area pressurized? Why can't I just fill it with a plug of something heat-resistant and move on? I must be missing something very fundamental...

Paul B

 

[GenLightening]

If the hole has any jagged edges (as opposed to a perfect circle) to it, those will develope into cracks from the engine vibrations. It's also possible that the impact that made the hole may have caused cracks that haven't shown up yet, but will when you can afford them the least.

 

[oldmisterbill]

Gee I hate to be sarcastic-but it is a silly thought.When an engine throws a rod like that there is usually a lot of damage -unseen and seen.If money was not a problem then it could probably be done-but it would be real costly.
About 20 years ago a friend had a brand new 351 long block on his truck.He tried to bring it home from the stealership on his flatbed with no tie downs.it took a dive off the truck on an expressway,don't know the speed but highway speed. He took it to me to see what I could do.the boss that holds the starter droke the peice fit thru the oil pan gasket area to about 1 in from the rear main bearing,and was completly broken off including the ear where the starter bolted on(my recolection may be off a little(I getting senile). The oil pan saved the crnkshaft.part of the shipping crate cushined it-the valve covers were Junk.I welded the boss back on being careful to drill ot roun the sharp ends of the break.then leak tested it. It had some porisity thru the weld(cast rods were not as good as they are now),and showed some seepage.Next i used tinning flux - tinned the whole weld area then coated it with solder.Fixed!! It is still running but took a couple days to do the whole weld and seal thing .We were lucky-I was concerned about the line bore for the rear main bearing but it seems to have been fine.Took a lot of fileing-grinding to fit the rear seal and get the oil pan surface so it would seal when assembeled.If the engine wasn't new it would have been scrapped because it wasn't worth the chance & the cost of having a shop repair a block that needed rebuilding. In this case we had nothing to loose and did a "in home repair". Oh yes I had to redrill an oil pasage by hand and use a pipe plug to block the hole we made to drill the oil passge. And luckily all the bolts lined up.
A thrown rod would do much more damage then we encountered on that engine. It was S--t luck.

 

[riotwarrior]

AHHH slap some kinda plastic metal....Weld Bond or something like that in thar and yer good to go....till it explodes that is....

Seriously what ever caused the hole in all likely hood has caused serious stress risers that will show up as metal failure cracks or *********** on of the original hole.

The only way to fix it would be to pull the engine have it either magna fluxed or ziglowed and checked for cracks, then have it professionally welded.

 

[MUDKICKR]

manga-steel it, that stuff is awesome

 

[devildog88]

i would get a new block just for piece of mind i mean if your going to go threw all the trouble to rebuilt it why risk it to a screwed up block. with my luck it would be all good until i am hundred or miles away and really need to get somewhere

 

[dbarilow]

we had an M-88 tank retreiver throw a rod through the block. had the hole welded shut and she ran fine for the 2 years that I was there.

 

[subway]

i would get a new block just for piece of mind i mean if your going to go threw all the trouble to rebuilt it why risk it to a screwed up block. with my luck it would be all good until i am hundred or miles away and really need to get somewhere

i think that is the problem, i dont think that you could weld cast right at all on a structural piece. you can't re-recreat the structure of the casting process by welding it and easily have inherant stress risers in the area. it can be welded but you never know how well it will hold up or how long until it gives......5 mins......10 years. it might hold but it cant be trusted unfortunatly.

i completely understand trying to save money and do it yourself but i would pass on this one.

 

[oldmisterbill]

Kinda my point-a calculated risk,that isn't really worth taking,except for extinuating circumstances. You could try it and spend all the money to rebuild the rest of the engine and in a split second it all is wasted. I took a chance,it took a lot of hours. I feel I was just very lucky.

 

[f350flatbed]

Thanks all for the responses. I will get another engine and tinker around on this one in the garage. I am kind of interested in this because I would like to learn some welding and engine repair knowledge. I had read somewhere about a new(?) material for welding cast iron blocks, soemthing about low-nickel content, that would hold up very well in a block.

Paul B