New member, Old car

[casper50]

Not sure that's a crack.  could be casting.  Does it have coolant in it?  If so it should be leaking out of there.

 

[Dads49]

7 minutes ago, casper50 said:

Not sure that's a crack.  could be casting.  Does it have coolant in it?  If so it should be leaking out of there.

 

I thought of that too.  There are a couple of pretty suspicious little veins off the main vein though.  I would have thought there would be  coolant too, but I haven't seen anything yet.

[knuckleharley]

1 hour ago, Dads49 said:

Here's the picture of the crack(s)...

I guess "super bummer" is one way of putting it.

The can be drilled at the end of the crack to eliminate stress,then pinned and welded back up,but it's a super pain in the ass because you have to completely strip your block,pay somebody that knows what they are doing with cast iron to weld it,and then you are out new rings and a gasket set at a minimum.

It would probably be cheaper to just keep your engine for parts and buy a running 218 or 230 from somebody and install that.

i  see you are in Ashville,which is about as far from me as you can get and still be in NC,but if push comes to shove I have a rebuildable block laying around,and a good running 218 I pulled from a 48 Dodge pu that I had to repossess. Ran good and held 45 PSI oil pressure when I sold it to the loser,but he had done something to screw the truck up so I just pulled the engine and trans and parted out the cab. Never heard it run after I got it back. Not crazy about selling that one,but I could probably be talked into it because I now have a couple of 230's.

 

[knuckleharley]

1 minute ago, Dads49 said:

I thought of that too.  There are a couple of pretty suspicious little veins off the main vein though.  I would have thought there would be  coolant too, but I haven't seen anything yet.

The previous owner could have filled it with one of the old "block seal" products people bought to "fix" cracked blocks. That's not an actual fix,but  if it's not leaking now after reaching operating pressure and the pressure cap is good on the radiator,good for you! Drive it like it is until it does start leaking,and use the time you have between now and then to buy another engine that is good or rebuildable,and have it on hand for the day the stop leak dies.

[Dads49]

8 minutes ago, knuckleharley said:

I guess "super bummer" is one way of putting it.

The can be drilled at the end of the crack to eliminate stress,then pinned and welded back up,but it's a super pain in the ass because you have to completely strip your block,pay somebody that knows what they are doing with cast iron to weld it,and then you are out new rings and a gasket set at a minimum.

It would probably be cheaper to just keep your engine for parts and buy a running 218 or 230 from somebody and install that.

i  see you are in Ashville,which is about as far from me as you can get and still be in NC,but if push comes to shove I have a rebuildable block laying around,and a good running 218 I pulled from a 48 Dodge pu that I had to repossess. Ran good and held 45 PSI oil pressure when I sold it to the loser,but he had done something to screw the truck up so I just pulled the engine and trans and parted out the cab. Never heard it run after I got it back. Not crazy about selling that one,but I could probably be talked into it because I now have a couple of 230's.

 

If I'm gonna replace the engine it's gonna be as close to the original as possible, but it's not going to be any time soon.  I'll definitely keep your offer in mind.  Depending on if this engine is original to the car I might even put the money into having the block fixed.  Time will tell.

[Jerry Roberts]

1 hour ago, Dads49 said:

Here's the picture of the crack(s)...

 See how it extends into the freeze plug , I wonder if that really is a crack or just a scratch . 

[Don Coatney]

3 minutes ago, Jerry Roberts said:

 See how it extends into the freeze plug , I wonder if that really is a crack or just a scratch . 

I agree. I have never seen a crack extend into two metals.

[Dads49]

Edited February 11, 2017 by Dads49
I sure hope you guys are right. I'll take a closer look.

[knuckleharley]

26 minutes ago, Dads49 said:

Ok,it's not a crack. It's a groove where something scraped it.

 

[Niel Hoback]

There now, doesn't that feel better?  Sure looked like a crack tho, didn't it?

[Dads49]

7 minutes ago, Niel Hoback said:

There now, doesn't that feel better?  Sure looked like a crack tho, didn't it?

Sure does.  Never seen a scratch with branches though.

[Dodgeb4ya]

Never have seen a core plug crack...

[knuckleharley]

10 minutes ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

Never have seen a core plug crack...

Me,either. They are mild steel and WON'T crack. You can cut them or bend them,but they won't crack.

[Flatie46]

I was going to come over an weld up that scratch for ya.

[Dads49]

So any input on that transmission?  How about that block stamp?  Any way to tell if that's the original?

[Flatie46]

I don't know much about date coding on these cars or  how the number system works I see that one tag that says, 1-26-49 on the tail shaft. On some old cars you can't be sure on some parts if they came with a particular car. You can only go by the date code and know that the part in question was made at the same time the car was. I've never been concerned with this on my car since it was just going to be a driver. If that is the original trans pictured and you want it back it the car you can either fix it or swap the internals from the one in the car into that case. May be some info on this in the  Tech or Resources section. Or someone that has more on this may chime in.

[Branded]

10 hours ago, Dads49 said:

So any input on that transmission?  How about that block stamp?  Any way to tell if that's the original?

Transmission appears to be the standard 3 speed trans.

[DJ194950]

P-18 = 1949 Plymouth but does it match the title.? Only Some states used the engine block # as the ID # on their titles, but if you can find the frame # over the frame arch of the driver side behind the wheel it would match if original engine = more work on your part if you really want to know.

Many posts on locations in the area of location of the # as they were hand stamped and different persons, factory locations, etc. caused variations but all are in the same area But can be fairly light stamps and only very good cleaning will show the # most times.

Good luck with all your work, but take your  time and enjoy it all- well worth it in the end!

DJ

[classiccarjack]

On 2/11/2017 at 2:00 PM, Jerry Roberts said:

 See how it extends into the freeze plug , I wonder if that really is a crack or just a scratch . 

I was thinking the exact same thing.  I have never seen a crack carry over from cast iron into a steel plug, doesn't seem plausible.

If my hunch is wrong, and it is truly a freak crack that did affect the freeze plug, use Lock-N-Stitch.  Welding repairs can fail, then you have a even bigger problem to fix.  I had a "welded repair" fail on a 1938 Cadillac 60 Special that I restored.  I did have some luck in saving the block with some serious toxic epoxy from 3M, but I don't want to do that again.  I got turned onto Lock-N-Stitch from Turlock, CA about a decade ago.  I have repaired several blocks with it.  The worst was a 440 with a 7 inch crack that went into the freeze plug hole.  After each repair, I carefully ground down the stitches and ran a Air Needler acrost it.  After a repaint, every repaired block that I have done is 95% unnoticeable.  I have had no failures and highly recommend the product.  Not only are welds not as successful, they look really ugly and you can't hide them.....

Has anyone else tried this amazing product?