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Well....
The title says it all pretty much. I have a huge crack in a water jacket. It goes ALL THE WAY down the block, underneath the freeze plugs on the driver side. Does anybody have any get-me-by tricks to help with this? I am in no way above Okie solutions in the slightest. We tried sealing it up with JB Waterweld, which worked like a champ for a few days, but It's now starting to peel off. I've also tried Moroso Ceramic Seal, which didn't help much. It helped a little, but did not stop it completely. Perhaps the two in conjunction with each other?

I don't have the means to pull the motor at the moment, though i will in a few months and will take it to a local machine shop to get welded up, along with a good thorough clean up, new rings, etc.... I just would like to make it to a few local car shows this month without the worry of losing all my coolant and over heating.

Thanks in advance for the help!!!

the reason your JB weld didn't work was because the block wasn't clean enough. thats why its peeling off.

clean that block super good and try just regular jb weld. should stay forever.

they also have that metal in a tube stuff, goes on soft and hardens and looks like metal.

Hank

I recommend that to stop the crack from continuing to grow, you drill a small hole at either extreme end to increase the surface area over which the stress is exerted. Standard machine shop practice.

PS - the larger the whole you drill, the greater area the stress will be spread over and the better the chance that the crack will not propogate. If you wish, rather than rely on filler, you could then thread the hole with a pipe tap, thread in a pipe plug, and dress off the surface flush.

Hank, thanks! I cleaned it best I could with a dremel tool, but I don't think the crack itself was clean... I'll chisel that stuff off and go after it with a wire wheel. That should be able to get up in the crack better. Maybe after that hit it with a coarse dremel again to.give a rough surface to bond to, or does that matter?

i know paint sticks to a rough surface better, so it seems logical.

use degreaser and cleaners too. i would.

Part of the problem is that antifreeze is slippery stuff and will contaminate he crack before it is sealed--then it works out under your epoxy. Might want to run quite a bit of fresh water through the block then drain it while the engine is hot so it dries up nicely. Fully agree with Owen about drilling the holes at the ends.

Dear fory:

You may get a better result from West Systems G-Flex. It is very tenacious and they have a line of binders that go along with the product.

Step 2: Get rid of the pressure cap. Your stop gap measure will not work under pressure. You can fill the radiator to cover the fins and it will run fine. Just take your radiator cap and get rid of the little jiggle valve on the end of the cap.

Step 3: Once the flow has been stopped run the car on straight water and Bars Leak for the summer. It may boil somewhat in very hot weather, but just keep adding water.

Step 4: Hopefully there are no cracks in the valve seats. If all else fails then drill, tap, and fit cold rolled steel plate over the thing (may require pulling the motor to lay it on its side). Or you can take it to a talented welder (hard to find anymore).

Good luck with your car

Tim, thanks for the advise! So I remove the pressure valve in the radiator cap because the pressure just pushes the stuff out the crack. Makes total sense! I'm not really worried about not have a pressure cap around where i live since the hottest part of summer we see is less the 85 degrees...LOL

I've used the west systems stuff that's like super glue that you ad a powder to... I'm sure the shop I got it from would have their JB Weld type product in stock as well. I'll give it a try for sure!!

There's a machine shop locally that does very good work. It's neat to check out their shop Too because all the equipment in there is 40s-50s era. No computer controlled anything!!