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Old March 14th, 2014, 06:29 PM
Vern Vern is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: North Idaho
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Default Re: Blown head gasket vs. cracked block

Quote:
Originally Posted by quest View Post
In either circumstance you have to pull the head off for repairs. If you are going to do a head gasket and there is no obvious deterioration of the old head gasket when you take it apart then you will automatically get a mag test and or pressure test done on the head to look for cracks. I think the white smoke does point more to the head than the block.

There is always a risk that a bad gasket could fill up a cylinder with coolant after you shut off the engine and possibly cause severe breakage the next time you turn the engine over and it can't compress the fluid. If the engine still runs and starts okay you can guess that the leak could be going into the exhaust port as suggested already.

A head gasket leak on the compression side could also put a puddle on the ground and pressurize your radiator blowing coolant out the cap, possibly blowing a weak hose and or cause the water pump shaft to start leaking.

Depending on what you know about the engine history you could just have the head gasket/head replacement done but in my experience it makes sense to at least do rings and bearings along with that if not an even more complete rebuild.

Or maybe you have access to another good dropin engine.

Ah, a mechanic family member says I'm crazy and need to drop in a crate 350 with fuel injection. I kinda like the put-put 250 with the manual pull choke... hopefully I can salvage it. Unfortunately, I don't know much about the engine other than it's not the original. The guy I bought it from didn't seem to know too much about it. I think the casting number puts it between '67 and '71.

Is it possible to replace the rings without pulling the engine? It seems like replacing the rings wouldn't be too bad, but could be a nightmare if it's still in the engine bay? How about those rebuilt kits that actually include new pistons and rings?
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