I have a 54 Chevy Bel Air. Nothing fancy or nice. Just an old car I drive around once in a while during the summer months. I pulled the engine because I had a coolant leak and I found a crack in the block. (See pic) Im looking for a cheap fix. I dont plan to weld it for sure. Ill either use some type of epoxy or I will find a new donor block and use that. My preference is to use some type of epoxy as a cheap short term fix and a year or two from now Ill look to replace the engine with a new one. Has anyone had any experiences using chemical sealants or epoxy to fix a cracked block? I found a site (see URL below) that talks about these options in more detail but the site does not suggest how well they work. Thanks, Jesse Chemical Sealants · There are a number of sealants on the market. K&W Engine Block Sealer and SteelSeal are among the choices. Although directions will vary a little with each sealant, you basically need to drain your radiator and then pour in the sealant. Afterward, you need to run the car for the prescribed amount of time, and then drain the excess sealant and refill the radiator. The SteelSeal website says that for its sealant you only need to run your car at 1000 RPMs for 30 minutes, while according to My Honest Mechanic, you have to run K&W in your car for 500 miles. The problem with that is that for 500 miles you don't have any over boil or anti-freeze protection. Epoxy · According to the website Old Marine Engine, metal epoxy can be used depending on the size of the crack. Two of the most common epoxies are JB Weld and Marine Weld. The epoxy can be used as a putty to fill the crack. Most epoxies have a 24-hour cure time. You also need to be sure that the epoxy you use is suitable for the high temperatures in your engine. Read more: About Engine Block Repair | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_4827733_engine-block-repair.html#ixzz2Osc1UBnU
looks like there's another crack up near the freeze plug. or is that my eyes playing tricks on me? i personally wouldn't trust epoxy to seal an engine block crack, but then i'm lucky enough to have an engine builder for a father in law who could weld it up for me.
i have used jb weld on water jackets inside heads works proabbly peen over the crack and grind and JB it and leave it cure for a few days should work unless you go over 240 degrees on teeemp
I don't know if you can still get it but BARS LEAK or SILVER SEAL will probably do the job. I had one just like yours only the full length of the block I put a jar of bars leak in the radiator and a piece of card board in front of it. you want to get it good and hot. i would get it hot then put the sealer in. I drove it for 2 years and it never leaked a drop. sold it to a buddy and he drove it for a long time, no leaky it should seal it right up
late 50's we ran one cracked in the same place but worse than that, soldered in a race car for 2 seasons with no problems.
This may sound stupid, but I have fixed rads, and cracked blocks with good old black pepper. Just put a decent hand full in the rad, and fire it up. It will leak for a bit, but does stop fairly quickly.
Cast iron stitch pins. I wouldn't weld or epoxy a crack. Easy to do since the engine's out of the car.
Since you already have it out why not just have it welded, probably wouldn't be that expensive. Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
I have fixed many with JB Weld. I think with length of that crack I would drill a small shallow hole at each end of the crack to help prevent further cracking, and JB Weld it while the engine is out. If it does not completely stop the leak you can then add KW block seal...
JB weld definitley works have tried it on a cracked head on a daily driver I didn't want to spend a lot of money on. It is still holding 3 yrs later.
Thanks for all the feedback. I went with the JB weld trick. We'll see if it work. I posted a thread that talks about how I did it step by step. See http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=839872
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