engine help

t57f100

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i bought this engine from a guy who said it ran great he switched to a bigger 360 motor i have everything else painted and went to change my cam to a very mild cam very mild you won't even know its there.but look what i found keep in mind its been running like this

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I believe that there may be elements to the story behind this engine that the PO failed to share with you. I wouldn’t change anything if I decided to try to run it.
 
That is a known weak area.
Sorry to see that you bought a boat anchor.

i bought this engine from a guy who said it ran great
It couldn't have with chunks of iron flying around.
 
Interesting, were the debris from the block failure still in the valley or else where in the engine? I am thinking something else probably broke and got wedged between the cam and the block to cause this. Mostly, what you now have is an interesting conversation item, but not a viable engine.

Dave
 
Interesting, were the debris from the block failure still in the valley or else where in the engine? I am thinking something else probably broke and got wedged between the cam and the block to cause this. Mostly, what you now have is an interesting conversation item, but not a viable engine.

Dave
no not at all this was a running motor no pieces any where and it was freshened up before me .
 
no not at all this was a running motor no pieces any where and it was freshened up before me .

The prior owner probably made due with what he had. I doubt any professional shop would spend their time on a damaged block like this, but I have learned to never say never about such things. I would not put this engine in anything I owned except maybe a derby car, and I do not run derby. No offense intended.

Dave
 
That was a post elsewhere. There's nothing wrong with it. As long as there's no pieces of it in there (and IIRC that post said it had been all rebuilt previously) it's fine. It looks bad, surely, but there is no performance detriment or bad juju with that.
 
Back in the day, this type of damage would have qualified for a warranty replacement of the engine. I would be worried about the thin shards of casting next to the oil pump drive shaft.

Dave
 
Not relevant but I'll say it. In high school I got my 2nd C body, a 68 Fury 3, 4dr hardtop but had a blown motor. It was a 318 and had thrown a rod through the block by the left motor mount. Amazing thing, it still ran and drove, not well as you'd imagine but I got it home.
 
Check post 318 poly performance cam I believe max 1196 posted pics of similar blocks
i just look it looks like others have had the same issue but kept going.a local engine builder stopped by looked at it and said most newer motors dont have that much metal around them this will be fine.this now i know is a weak spot in this motor.when i took off the pan it was clean no chips in nothing like i said it was freshened up before me and ran good.
 
I would also say to just run it. The lifter bore still seems to be structurally sound/ish and you said that you are going to install a tiny cam in it. That probably means that the engine isn't going to see hours of 5000rpm plus on circle track racing...

And in the end. Almost nothing to loose? The engine is already paid and the seller is not likely to return money?
 
Cut your losses.

Im sure you could find a new block for cheap. Pay a machine shop for a clean/hone, decking if it needs it, maybe a bore if you are running over sized pistons, and magna flux. Have them install new cam bearings then do everything else yourself. Its cheap insurance and you could probably get it all done for like $500-$700 or so depending on what you get the block for.

Do you really want to risk driving down the road and hear it go BOOM. Its already junked itself once...
 
For what it's worth, doesn't look like a new break, must have lasted a while. Still, if you're looking at a rebuild, wouldn't be worth the risk.
 
Back in the day, this type of damage would have qualified for a warranty replacement of the engine. I would be worried about the thin shards of casting next to the oil pump drive shaft.

Dave

"Back in the day" this was called a production engine and they installed it that way...lol. If you've seen a lot of OEM blocks you realized they will run almost ANYTHING. That break is not in any structural area.
 
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