Cracked Block

TobbyT

TobbyT

Member
I’m not one for making recommendations but I may start. Long story short, I bought a 1950 Ford F-3 with no history. I got it home and found the block was crack and pumping water from #3 cylinder. I mean a lot of water. I got it running but only with no water in the block.

I bought a bottle of K&W Head Gasket and Block Repair to see if it could get the truck running enough for me to see what I had. I put about 2 gallons of water in the radiator and stated the motor up. It was running rough. Once we got it running we poured K&W Head Gasket and Block Repair in the radiator and filled it up the rest of the way with water. It was really run rough now. It was blowing water out of the tail pipe and the right water pump was leaking badly. After running for 15 minutes the water pump stopped leaking. After 20 minutes it was only blowing steam out of the tail pipe. After 45 minutes she was running good with no steam or smoke. We shut it down and let it sit overnight. The next afternoon I fired her up and she ran perfect. It’s been 2 weeks now and still running strong. I have to say the stuff has worked enough for me to get a feel for what I have.
 
I guess if its that or trash why not although I'd be tempted to see if it could be fixed before I ruined the block but if it can't be fixed what do you have to lose.
 
Mike in AZ said:
did you pull the head to find the crack in the block??....Mike
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I pulled the heads and the intake and could not find the crack. To be honest I think it is somewhere in the intake side. I had water in several cylinders on both sides of the motor. #3 was the worst by far. No water in the oil.
 
Fibber Mcgee said:
I guess if its that or trash why not although I'd be tempted to see if it could be fixed before I ruined the block but if it can't be fixed what do you have to lose.
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I don't think I would say the block is ruined and I'd be a fool to say it's fixed. I think this will only buy me a little time to see what I have in this truck. I have another motor that I plan to rebuild and put in it. For now she is driveable.
 
I have seen K&W "make" 1 inch of missing headgasket --I know because over a year later I got to take the car apart to do a proper repair, not because the sealer had failed, but because the person came into enough money to to do all the repairs the car needed--also had broken ring gear, needed to push start sometimes
 
Kurt in NJ said:
I have seen K&W "make" 1 inch of missing headgasket --I know because over a year later I got to take the car apart to do a proper repair, not because the sealer had failed, but because the person came into enough money to to do all the repairs the car needed--also had broken ring gear, needed to push start sometimes
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I'll need to do a proper repair on this motor and wondering what I'm in for. Was it difficult to remove the "Made" head gasket ? Did it damage the block in any way ?
 
I've never run into this with a flathead (don't have that much experience) but I have several times with Brand "X" engines. Could there be a leak in the intake manifold? This is easy to detect in a dual plane because water will be in corresponding cylinders on both sides of the engine to whichever "plane" is leaking. If you're lucky on an OHV, this results in a bent pushrod or two. If not, fluids don't compress and it's got to go somewhere, usually through a head but sometimes out the side of a cylinder. This is particularly true where chemicals in the water set up electrolysis between iron and non-ferric metals. I was in the boat business for many years and we saw this sometimes, particularly in salt water, but I've also seen it on a car (hot rod) that was run on the street.

Just a thought. Good luck.
 
No water in a flathead manifold

What about those funny little heat risers you use a penny to block off? Just my two cents worth. Literally.
 
You're right. That kills that theory. Right now I'm working part time in a machine shop building small block brand "X's". I see them in my sleep. At my age, all this starts to run together.
 
The bllock sealer didn't do any damage, it wasn't much more to remove than a stubborn gasket.

If your problem comes back and you are not ready to take it apart treat it again, one car that I tried K&W on didn't respond, on the first crank a geyser would shoot up over 10 feet out of the radiator, called the company and they said to repeat the process, that didn't work, the car was parked as junk--with the K&W still in it, 6 months later the car needed to be moved, it ran perfect, didn't build pressure, after a week of driving the car it was sold at a used car lot---a year later it was still running without problem(it was disclosed at time of sale that the car was treated)
 
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