Bad Day

[mozark]

Cracked block. Was dealing with a blown head gasket in my M37. An old military repair at the No.4 head bolt hole had pulled, and while dealing with that discovered at least four cracks in the deck. Can't really hold the shop that did the machine work when I rebuilt it 12 years ago responsible. Too much time has passed. Ces't la vie.

MM

[wayneh]

It does not sound at all like good news, but maybe not that bad of a day. Bad days in my book are the folks who got blown up in Iraq or Afghanistan and have traumatic brain injury , paralysis, or missing body parts. I'm honored to work with some of them now, and unfortunately I know some who won't be enjoying this holiday weekend. I lost one of my special washers for my manifold today, and was getting upset, but after a few minutes of realizing how good I have it and how lucky I am, I got over it pretty fast...

Wayne

PS: This was somebodies idea of an Aprils fool joke in Iraq on 1 April '04 outside of assassins gate. I won't post the bad pictures...

[Gordon Maney]

The upside is that good blocks are still pretty plentiful, and it sounds like you got a lot of good service from it.

Also, think of the fun you will have putting a new one together! We can all learn.

Where were the cracks, near valve seats?

[mozark]

Block

Wayne: true enough. As I said to my wife when she was looking sour about the cost "it's only an engine."

Gordon: No, one crack between the #2 and #3 cylinder sleeves, and three between coolant passages and head-bolt holes. It's puzzling to me, but it is what it is.

MM

[Gordon Maney]

I wonder if it may have been overheated at some point in its history.

[Charles Talbert]

The crack between #2 & #3 cylinders is bad news for sure. Actually when you see small cracks that run between water passages and bolt holes; in the majority of cases if a good thread sealant is used, they never cause any problems. As many as you have found, I'd almost bet overheating has happened in a serious way at some point.