Cracked block repair with Metal Stitching

Has anyone had any experience repairing a cracked block using "metal stitching" rather than welding or JB weld. Just scored a low hours 140 HP Mercruiser for my 27 roadster, only to find a 10" crack in the water jacket!

 

sorry for the repeat! no excuses offered!

 

Many moons ago, there was a tech post on it. It's relitivly simple, and if done right works well.

 

10" in this case isn't a good thing,question its worth, do you have to put any other money into it?

 

I repair cracks in cylinder heads and blocks in my shop frequently. I have had no problems with the system that I use. The products i use are from a company called lock-n-stitch. www.locknstitch.com If you can find someone in your area repairing with this product it is the best stitching method avaialable. The pic design will actually pull the crack together rather than spreading it apart like stitching pins in the past. This is the only company poducing this kind of pin technology. One of their C2 pins has 300 lbs of pulling pressure. Fastcat

 

thats some great info, thanks, great pictures on that website under examples

 

There used to be a guy named Frank Casey in the Worcester, Ma area who repaired blocks using the "dry stitching" method. Don't know if he's still around or not.

I run the parts dept. at a boat dealership. All the 3.0L blocks that I've seen crack due to freezing have a crack that runs parallel to the deck surface on the left side, maybe an inch or so below it. You can't really see it til the one piece manifold is removed, although you may see rust stains running down the side of the block. They usually only crack in that one spot, I don't recall any that had water in the oil so most should be repairable.

Before I knew any better, I watched several of them get tossed in the dumpster. New long blocks are so cheap that there's no real core value to the cracked ones and they usually get tossed. Put the word in at a few of your local marinas to save 'em for you, and you can probably have a free one in no time. I know I've got my sights set on the next one we see.

Just be aware that GM changed/improved the head design around 1993-94, and the manifold port shapes are dramatically different. Make sure the manifold matches. Older ones were rated at 140hp at the crankshaft, newer ones are rated at 135hp at the propshaft and perform much better.

Rick

 

This is exactly where its' cracked. I'm leaning toward stitching the crack. Thanks