The Ford Barn - View Single Post - I found a crack in an odd place while pressure testing

Fordestes · 08-19-2020, 10:05 PM

Most of the recommended repairs stated above are certainly very good . I performed this type of crack repair many times which has proven to work and never has failed after many years when the customer didn't want to spend a lot of money on high hour dozers as well as many other expensive engines in heavy off road equipment where labor and down time was a valuable commodity and repair costs would exceed the worth of the machine, This is how I done them and have had zero failures ,some of these repairs are still in service after 20 plus years on farm tractors etc. . Set cracked area horizontally (flat ) as to avoid run off, drill small holes at ends and plug if desired , vee out and clean with a solvent that dries without an oily residue ( I have used denatured alcohol or M.E.K etc.), blow dry with compressed air down into crack, seal off all water passages except for one,( MAKE SURE WHAT EVER YOU USE IS NOT FLAMABLE) and safe to use with an electric vacuum, take a shop vacuum and have assistant apply vacuum to the open water neck or fitting of water jacket, with a mix of suitable cold weld compound, epoxy , Belzona 1111 SUPER METAL , Devcon , J.B weld etc. have assistant apply vacuum to water jacket then feed the compound into the crack until it penetrates as deep as possible into the cracked area, let off vacuum ,smear liberal amount to the area over the cracked area while blending with the compound already fed into the crack, allow to dry the time needed to fully cure,(I allow atleast 24 hours), then refill and return to service. I done this 40 years ago on a flathead the machine shop said had core shift but was actually a freeze crack , after it was machined assembled and installed the crack became evident , when coolant was added it began to leak ,rather than dis -assemble, I done this and the present owner still hasn't had any issues with the crack repair ,I came up with this many years ago while traveling ,when a sand hole in my new 454 motor home reared it ugly head , being miles from a dealer I had to think of a temporary fix . we later done this to a junk block and cut it apart to see how it worked and the compound permeated the pores of the cracked cast iron . hope this helps.

08-19-2020, 10:05 PM	#20
Fordestes Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 886	Re: I found a crack in an odd place while pressure testing Most of the recommended repairs stated above are certainly very good . I performed this type of crack repair many times which has proven to work and never has failed after many years when the customer didn't want to spend a lot of money on high hour dozers as well as many other expensive engines in heavy off road equipment where labor and down time was a valuable commodity and repair costs would exceed the worth of the machine, This is how I done them and have had zero failures ,some of these repairs are still in service after 20 plus years on farm tractors etc. . Set cracked area horizontally (flat ) as to avoid run off, drill small holes at ends and plug if desired , vee out and clean with a solvent that dries without an oily residue ( I have used denatured alcohol or M.E.K etc.), blow dry with compressed air down into crack, seal off all water passages except for one,( MAKE SURE WHAT EVER YOU USE IS NOT FLAMABLE) and safe to use with an electric vacuum, take a shop vacuum and have assistant apply vacuum to the open water neck or fitting of water jacket, with a mix of suitable cold weld compound, epoxy , Belzona 1111 SUPER METAL , Devcon , J.B weld etc. have assistant apply vacuum to water jacket then feed the compound into the crack until it penetrates as deep as possible into the cracked area, let off vacuum ,smear liberal amount to the area over the cracked area while blending with the compound already fed into the crack, allow to dry the time needed to fully cure,(I allow atleast 24 hours), then refill and return to service. I done this 40 years ago on a flathead the machine shop said had core shift but was actually a freeze crack , after it was machined assembled and installed the crack became evident , when coolant was added it began to leak ,rather than dis -assemble, I done this and the present owner still hasn't had any issues with the crack repair ,I came up with this many years ago while traveling ,when a sand hole in my new 454 motor home reared it ugly head , being miles from a dealer I had to think of a temporary fix . we later done this to a junk block and cut it apart to see how it worked and the compound permeated the pores of the cracked cast iron . hope this helps. Last edited by Fordestes; 08-19-2020 at 10:14 PM.