Hello all I have a few questions about a cracked block and I would appreciate any advice folks are willing to share. I have my Dad's 1964 409. I took the block, heads, and crank into NAPA to have them cleaned up. The heads and crank checked out OK to go back in with stock bearings. While cleaning the block they found a crack - from the research I have done they found THE crack - 10 inches long parallel to the deck down about 0.5 inch in the outer water jacket. After talking to a welder that specializes in cast iron engine blocks - he scared me away. He said the process is rough and likely would bring out other flaws possibly costing 2-3 grand by the time it is done and also requiring it to be bored out/new pistons, etc I cannot justify that kind of project at this point - especially since I do not even have a car for the engine currently. My one question is - how about this "pinning" process as an option? Sounds like I could then put it all back together stock. Is this a reasonably acceptable option? Are there any other reasonable options? If I cannot find a reasonable solution I am - painfully - considering selling it. Complete engine including a tri-power manifold and carbs. Any ideas about what this might be worth - with a cracked block of course. Sincere thanks for any help.............Cracked
Without seeing a picture of the crack, I am guessing that it is repairable. The low tech answer to the problem is, that you need to drill both ends of the crack, then the the block has to be pre-heated, and the repair has to be done by welding in alternate 1/2 inch long tracks and then skipping an inch before starting the next weld. After a couple of welds, I prefer to gently hammer the welded ares, particularly at the edges to relieve the stress.. You just keep gradually filling the spaces until there are no more spaces to fill. Then the block must be cooled slowly, or you will have more new cracks. There are two types of cast rods that I have used for these repairs, one is machinable nickle, and the other is non machinable, because you are just going to be grinding to restore the appearance of the block, it wouldn't matter which rod you use. I have used this repair several times, and the most difficult part for me was to find a way of heating the block evenly. The way I came up with, was to buy some oven elements from Goodwill, and use a discarded dishwasher carcass. This worked really well, because it had the open side to provide easy access to do the welding. What you have to do, is determine if the cost of the repair is worth it to keep a numbers matching block in the car. Bob
One of the guys on the 409 site is doing this repair using the lock and stitch method right now. http://www.348-409.com/forum/index.php?threads/409-crack-repair.25158/ He's also a member here too, I'm guessing he missed this thread. Anyway, he's part way through the job, you can watch and see how it turns out.
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