Thanks for taking the trouble to reply Mike.
I have to say that my preference will always be to effect a repair if
possible. That is why I asked the list.
I know that I can buy a block - or I could just buy a complete engine - but
that's not really the point.
Rest assured that, sooner or later, you will sell those blocks (and maybe
the crankshafts etc too !)
In the meantime, hamfisted amateurs like me sometimes just want to 'keep em
rollin' our own way, which is part of the fun.
Glenn
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike S <tankcity@globalnet.co.uk>
To: Military Vehicles Mailing List <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2001 9:03 AM
Subject: Re: [MV] Cracked MB Block
> Well, I guessed that would whip up a few replies!
>
> 1. I have done and continue to do more than my fair share of preserving
> our heritage of military vehicles and parts.
>
> 2. Call me an old cynic but the facts are inescapable. If you drive
round
> with a block that *might* take water at any time, you risk scrapping a lot
> more than the block. Of course, I have no problem with using modern
> technology to repair a modern block that some idiot has left out in the
> frost without anti freeze and, if you read my posting properly, you will
see
> that on a jeep block there are cracks that occur between the cylinders and
> round the stud holes that can, in certain circumstances, be repaired by
the
> experts.
>
> 3. However, that finest of teachers, experience, tells me that an
> internal crack in the distributer drive housing is a death knell for a
Jeep
> block. If you want to stuff a roll of copper, a contraceptive or anything
> else down the hole and drive round with your crank and bearings at risk to
> prove me wrong, please be my guest.
>
> 4. Sledgehammering blocks at the distributer drive does give the
> opportunity to examine the block *internally* at this point and that's
quite
> an education. There is no doubt that Mother Rust is eating away at the
block
> on every single one of your lovely preserved military vehicles. The walls
> of the Jeep block are very thin round the distributer housing. Fifty five
> to sixty years of rust in your WW2 block will not have improved the
> situation. Unless I have missed something and the Americans have invented
> Rustrodes to stitch weld rust, then all their wonderful technology ain't
> gonna fix that.
>
> 5. I didn't mention our stock of blocks to try and sell them but simply
> to give the uninitiated a guide to the cost of a change. Thanks to the
> aforementioned rust problem they will all get sold in the end. Meanwhile
if
> anybody feels like 'saving' any cracked blocks that come our way, I will
be
> quite happy to send them on for posterity provided they pay the carriage.
> Any takers?
>
> 6. Finally, I read another posting about boring out the block to plus
60
> thou. This can certainly be done and all the bits are available to this
> size but you can sometimes suffer from overheating problems at this
oversize
> due to thin cylinder walls - especially if the block has previously been
> sleeved. The resultant rapid heating and subsequent cooling of the block
> can cause condensation problems which give a Mayonaise in the oil effect
> similar to a cracked block. This explains how you can get Mayonaise in the
> oil without loosing water from the radiator. Purist members of The Jeep
> Block Preservation Society should check their stock of cracked blocks and
> scrap anything with a bore size over plus .30 thou. The American Army
> obviously knew something about jeep blocks during the war because the
> original workshop manual recommends rebore and parts available up to that
> size only.
>
> Cheers. Mike S. RR Services Ltd. UK
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 23:18:34 PDT