What are these?
 

What are these? I found the first one in the water jacket at the rear end of an engine block, which had the head removed when I found it and consequently did not pay to much attention to it as I thought that somehow it got in there by accident. However, some time later I removed the head off another engine and found the second one. It was only then that I realised that these stars were in there from original manufacture of the blocks. Both were found in approximately the same location within the water jacket at the rear of the blocks.
I am assuming that they must have been part of the manufacturing process in the casting of the blocks. Their location in the rear of the block certainly did not help in the circulation of water to the rear of the block.
Has anyone seen these items before or maybe shed some light on the subject.

Re: What are these?
 

I've seen wires left in the cooling system from the factory, but never stars.
The wires were used to hold the sand cores together during casting.

Re: What are these?
 

In a VIDEO, saw blocks being poured, while MOVING on a conveyor, AMAZING:eek::eek::eek:
SURELY there must have been REJECTS???
Bill W.

Re: What are these?
 

How did you get those stars out of the blocks?

Re: What are these?
 

To remove the sand and flash from the newly cast block, they are tumbled or vibrated in a media, and I think the stars could be a couple pieces of the media.

Re: What are these?
 

Thats what I was thinking too... Workers prolly didnt have a whole lot of time to fish out media and you would be surprised how hard some of that stuff can wedge in places.

Re: What are these?
 

Also could have been done at a later date when being rebuilt by someone?

Re: What are these?
 

How many times have we heard the expression "Bless your lucky stars".

Very few of us have had the good fortune to actually SEE our "luck stars". You are indeed, one of the lucky ones! Congratulations !

Re: What are these?
 

Re: What are these?
 

Thank you all for your input. MikeK, you nailed it. I did a google image search for the picture you show. The article explains how these were used. For those that are interested see the the following link http://www.castironcollector.com/CICN/cicn24.php
As mentioned earlier these were found in the rear of the engine block in the large water jacket hole on the corner and must have be lodged there in the cleaning process. Extracting them required a great deal of patience to get them in the right position so that they would come out.
Thanks all once again.