any tips or helpful advice for repairing a cracked honda block? it leaking coolant out the front of it behind the dipstick about 3-4 from the top of the block. and the crack runs about 3-4" horizontally






Modified by Garage 808 Hatch at 11:07 AM 4/27/2008

 

I'D FIND OUT WHY IT CRACKED FIRST....SORY MY CAPSLOCK KEY WONT TURN OFF.... AND THEN I WOULD SAY IT'D PROBABLY BE CHEPER AND SAFER TO BUY A BLOCK FROM THE WRECKER.

 

not really. its a sleeved GE block

 

jb weld or epoxy

 

we were thinking of drilling the ends of the crack to prevent it from continuing, then grinding a vee into it, and either tigging or JB welding it.

 

Isn't this a job for HondaBond?

 

no, honda-bond is a gasket type material, used between things, not just to coat over

 

if you have to weld it do as you said drill the ends, v it and weld away. You are going to have to preheat the block if you want to make the job easier on yourself.

 

ya, im trying to not have to pull it out. we may jb weld it first. we can always chip/grind it off and then weld it

 

If you don' want to take it out of the car, it has to be JB welded.
You should never take the chance of welding on something with tight tolerances between metal surfaces.
It's a gamble.
That said, it can be easily repaired out of the car and apart.
Pre-heat for sure, and some very aggressive acid to clean the area.
The JB weld won't last long I don't think, and cracks can propogate quickly once established.
Good luck.

 

ya, drilling the ends should keep it from spreading, the problem will be it trying to reopen. ya, if we weld it, it will be pulled, disassembled and preheated in an oven. we also so an acid solution for aluminum that a local baot company makes. if jb welding lasts an event, screw it, i'll redo it every 2 weeks to be able to run this season. either way its a gamble.

 

I have the exact same issue as you do.Mine is a sleeved darton block , i had the sleeving done about 6 years ago and it just started to do this last summer.I think its caused from using regular coolant.Someone from darton said to me that regular "green coolant"corrodes the coolant jackets.He also said that when you sleeve any honda block your supposed to use a special coolant,"i cant remember the name of the coolant right now".For a quick fix i just cleaned the area VERY good and filled the crap out of it with jb weld.So far it has held up just make sure you clean it very good and use the 24 hr cure jb weld not the "jb quick cure".If it leaks im just gonna drill out the ends of the crack, weld it then use jb to fill over it.


Modified by Ovrbst_T66 at 6:53 AM 4/28/2008

 

actually, for coolant i ran water with 1 bottle of water wetter, thats it. this motor has 50ish dyno pulls and 6 passes at the track

 

had a car come into my shop with a crack in the exact same spot, it was a sleeved B20 i believe. we ended up welding it in the car which let me tell you was a mother[freak]er. that material the block is made of sucks ***** to weld, it pops and spatters and just welds terrible. if at all possible jb weld it, youll have much less of a headache in the end.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CarTunr22 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Isn't this a job for HondaBond?</TD></TR></TABLE>

hahaha


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Garage 808 Hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">no, honda-bond is a gasket type material, used between things, not just to coat over</TD></TR></TABLE>

i think he was joking

but if it's only a track car then just pull the motor and weld it, I'm sure you have a spare day to do it, not like you are using the car daily which won't allow for downtime!

 

if pulling the motor wasnt such a *****, i'd be all over it. i'll just try driling and jb welding it first, its not like the jb weld cant be ground out and then welded. its worth a shot, i have a race next saturday

 

to be realistic the JB weld is only going to be a quick fix, if u wanna race it than go for it but plan on eventually haveing to take it out and weld it if you want to permently fix the problem

 

ya, i came to that realization today. we're gonna weld it in the car though. drill, grind, sand, acid clean, then heat with a torch and TIG it. may even weld some vertical supports on it to prevent it from pulling it apart again??

 

as long as everything is bolted in you should be fine.

might want to purge the engine while your welding though. wouldn't want a fire.

i've run argon though the pcv for about 10 minutes before welding in the past. i havn't welded blocks, but i've welded fitting on pans while in the car.

not somthing that i like to do, but i've been put in pretty crappy situations before too.

 

its only in the coolant passage. i have the drain plug off the front, i could douche it out if need be

 

well, the welding was unsuccessful, it welded fine outside of the wbbbing, but in between the webs, it will not weld up. cleaned it multiple time. then, the crack is still expanding, even thought we drilled the ends??? pretty much, motor is garbage.

 

Did you pre-heat? Use a "sharpie" and draw a circle around the crack, pre-heat until the marker burns off, it will be pleanty hot at that point. Plus pretty much any engine is going to be beyond cleaning. You have to grind the surface clean, just wipe over it with a die grinder just like you were polishing the ports on cylinder heads.

I've repaired pleanty of sport bike engines for local stunt riders. They break thier motor mounts off after wrecking about 1000 times, they bring me the engine, I build up new mounts and they end up stronger than the factory mounts were. Never had one come back either. Internal cases are a bitch, I acid wash them with alumium cleaner and I still dust off all around where I will be welding. I don't drill holes where the crack ends, I just V groove the crack and a little more.

 

we didnt pre heat, we did grind the surface, and wire brush it