Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike1291
I'm at the point where I am going to replace the engine in my 31 Coupe. It has the original engine in it but has a head gasket leak. Based on the service history of the car it's been doing that for a while and overheated badly once. It was agreed upon that the engine should be rebuilt. But with how much trouble there was in the past with it I'm thinking of going with a Burtz block.
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By the time you bore, refit with inserts, grind and balance the crank, grind the cam, new rods (because of the inserts) and otherwise do a good job rebuilding an old engine, you have approached the cost of a Burtz. And not all original blocks are good candidates for rebuilding. Back when re-babbeting was common, people didn't balance cranks, and blocks were not approaching 100 years old then rebuilding was the only way to go. It might still make sense your case. Terry's new block opens up a whole new alternative. Only you can decide, and it might depend on what you want to do with the car.
In my case, I did both. I got a Burtz that will go into the 1930 sedan I'm doing a ground-up resto on. The engine from that car got a "refurbishment" of rings, valves, cam, timing gear, flywheel surface, clutch and head decking and is now in my 1930 sedan driver and performing well. The engine that was in the 1931 (not original to the car) is now candidate for either a cylinder sleeve and rebuild (which I'm not going to do) or boat anchor.