Greetings all, well the crack on my 53 has not healed. The local welder, did some cast iron rod welding and put some stuff over the 2" crack, but is is once again leaking. Called the Lock and Stitch crew to see if there is a shop here in South Texas that does that type of stuff, heck I will go to San Antonio or Houston to get it done.

In the meantime, I found a Brazilian block. Got it for $250 and will keep it. I am poor and as you can probably tell, am trying to avoid taking the engine off.

How much can I anticipate in the removal and re-installation of the newly purchased block? It looks like it will come to that.....what should I be weary of as this transaction is done? Is the biggest cost, going to be all the new gaskets? I am not mechanically inclined as you can tell.

I love this site, everyone has good input and most of all honest.

Thanks

Carlos

 

Did you get an empty block or a complete engine, minus all the doo-dads? An empty engine will be expensive to have it machined and pistons etc fitted.

You probably should have never had any welding done on it, but it's too late now. As you learned, cast dosen't weld well. Especially a fuly assembled cast engine block.

If it were me, I would take a grinder and clean up what you have and use a product similar to JB Weld to seal it. You used to could get some putty that looked like a big tootsie roll. You pinch off what you needed, kneaded it like dough, and it would get hot. When it started to get hot you smushed it over the bad spot. There was even a version of it that was machinable. It would hold threads. I would look for that stuff, clean it up, knead it out, blob it on. It will most likely take care of the issue, at about $5. Auto parts places used to carry it.

 

It is an emply block. Everything on my engine is running great. Thanks for the advice.

Carlos-