She’s got a great body, but.
 

But the engine, not so much. My newly acquired A has a few cracks in the water jacket. Just below the water pump there are 3 cracks. Have done a lot of reading and I will clean the area, grind a bevel, and use JB weld. Because of the no pressure system, I will hope for the best. The body only has one small rust hole under the back seat. Truly amazing to me. Would love to hear from any one who has done this repair on water jacket. Thanks Harley

Re: She’s got a great body, but.
 

First do a compression test on the motor to determine if there are internal cracks of concern. Do a thorough job of cleaning the metal at the external cracks before using JB Weld. Also, drill 0.12" stop holes at both ends of each crack. After the JB Weld cures, I recommend that you use a quality brand of stop leak in the coolant, perhaps one with a water pump lube in it. This fix should work. God luck.

Re: She’s got a great body, but.
 

as Bob says........


did my 1912 buick- tons of cracks about 10 yrs ago. still holding fine.
Mine was in way worser shape then yours!

Re: She’s got a great body, but.
 

One of the advantages of a "non-pressure" cooling system.


Joe K

Re: She’s got a great body, but.
 

We did that on my last engine after what was left of the water froze and cracked int he same place. JB Weld and was running for years after that.

Mike

Re: She’s got a great body, but.
 

While cleaning it up, found out not the first fix. Didn’t crack where they fixed it. Couldn’t really tell how they did it. Fingers crossed, it’s all patched backup. Wish this car could tell me it’s story. Somewhere someone really took care of and definitely someone didn’t.

Re: She’s got a great body, but.
 

I drilled ends, v'd crack, and JB welded a Model T head. The heads are easy enough to come by and replace so I did it mainly to give it a try. It worked and I believe still is working 12 years later. It was a NASTY crack, maybe 4 inches long and opened up enough that I peened it to tighten the crack.

Re: She’s got a great body, but.
 

Burtz to the rescue! If the repair doesn’t work out.

Re: She’s got a great body, but.
 

Seen it work really good and some times not so well, the crack area has to be REALLY CLEAN before the JB applacation

Re: She’s got a great body, but.
 

Was that a freeze crack on top of the head? I've head of them being soldered and lasting for years.

Re: She’s got a great body, but.
 

It is a freeze crack to the best of my knowledge. I repaired it with JB weld. The repair looks great. It will be a little while before I know how well it went.

Re: She’s got a great body, but.
 

Put everything together, got it to temp. Success for now, on to the water pump.