on the bright side, the blocks aluminum, so you will get some good $$$ scraping it.... and who knows... you may wind up drinking a coke from it one day.

 

If that works, jb weld will be expecting a testimonial! Lol

 

I'm going for it.

I am having a friend do a little grinding and welding on the webbing, careful not to go below the piston TDC travel (you can feel a slight ring in the bore) and also not to do any damage to the steel sleeve. He's game.

Then I'm goning to take a router (yes, for woodworking) and an aluminum machining endmill and set it to zero depth. The RPM of the router is not variable, so I go nice and slow across the bead using 90% isopropyl alcohol as a coolant (won't rust my main bearings if a little drips in). I can finish with a angle grinder and polisher.

Then I'll put it all back together, change my oil, and see what I get.

 

Take some pictures of the process, hopefully it all works out.

 

How did that happen?

 

I'd do the same. See if you can rent a Dremel with adjustable speed from a tool rental store. I think I saw one around Christmas time for about $80. (if you decide to buy one you will use the crap out of it) Do a compression check before you fire it up and you should be good to go. I've seen a lot worse get repaired with JB weld or similar and it works just fine.

 

I don't know. Of course the gasket was also compromised at that location, and i did drive it for a week stumbling and missing.

My advise - don't drive it like that.

The surface is a mixture of a "cracked" edge as well as worn - as if the failure was first of all a crack or chip, and then the speed of the hot gasses through the rupture wore some of the jagged edge away.

I did not find any "chips" and the pistons themselves have not marks on them at all. The crack is above TDC on the 1 and 3 cylinders so it was not a matter of the piston catching an edge.

ANYONE KNOW THE ALLOY OF THE BLOCK? 356?

 

I think it is close to swiss cheese in porosity value....

 

JB Weld. Rover guy I know blew a main bearing cap through the side of the block on a 4.2L Rover V8 and JB welded the hole.

Hell, I patched the hole in the side of the transmission of my 2001 DII with JB weld.