"visual inspection" before engine rebuild?

[dremu]

Background: motor seized, overheated, though I don't know precisely in what order events occurred, as I was not behind the wheel.

When I pull it to have it rebuilt, should I take the heads off to look for cracking or other block damage, or is such damage not visible to the naked eye and I should let the shop do it?

Point being that if my block is toast, I'll go get another core to rebuild rather than messing with this one, and I'd rather find out earlier than later.

-- A

 

[85mudblazin]

If it was me yes I would pull it apart to see for myself what all is fubared. That way the shop cant say "ow you need a new block we have one for $X" when your block is just fine.

 

[vortec]

if you can see the crack without magnafluxing the block, i wouldn't trust it. i know they can be fixed, but i'd rather drop the extra money on a block that didn't already have major issues.

that said, when i had my cast iron intake manifold fluxed, they found hairline cracks across the carb mounting surface, but i'm still using it and haven't had any problems. a litte epoxy put my mind at ease, for the short term. but, i'm talking about cracks that were not visible to the naked eye, and, of course, the manifold doesn't have to contain explosions all day.

not sure how much engine work you've done, but if those heads have been on there a long time, they will likely be an absolute b!tch to get off (manifold, too). but, there's always a way. jackhammer, dynamite and dropping it out of a plane should be absolute last resorts.

 

[Thunder]

If the engine blew because of overheating you should definatly have it magnafluxed before rebuilding. Unless you know where to look and what to look for you might miss a small crack with a visual inspection. Dosn't cost that much to magnaflux. Way better and cheaper than fireing up a new engine and finding out a head is cracked.
But you should at least pull the heads and pan before you take it to a shop and have a good look to make sure the block is not damagd and worth rebuilding. It'll save you a few bucks in shop labor.

 

[jays68yak]

Id pull it apart just to see if you can tell yourself. I mean what if it was a headgasket???

 

[1979jimmy350]

pull the block apart then you can take the stripped block in for magaflux that way you save the cost of the shop charging you to take the engine apart

 

[NoReGrEtS]

I think you should pull it a part so we can see some carnage pics

 

[dremu]

Id pull it apart just to see if you can tell yourself. I mean what if it was a headgasket???

The engine is seized, i.e. won't turn AT ALL. Somehow I think I'm in for more than a headgasket

Fear not, gents, I'll take lots of pix of the teardown.

The shop I'm likely to use is local and a CK5'er, who comes highly recommended; I just wanted a general idea of whether I should look at the damn thing first and whether it was okay to have the heads pulled. I think I'll yank 'em just to see how bad the thing fried.

However, the stepdaughter just announced she wants to move in with us, so priorities may change, i.e. the motor rebuild may hafta wait

-- A

 

[K5-newf]

i just bought a hanyes over haul manuel for small block chevy for 20 bucks. if u realy want to save money rebuild it your self and bring it to a shop for magnafluxed and the money u save u can spend on more horse power and plus if you get into any trouble we are here by your side to help you.

 

[4X4HIGH]

The best advice i can give you is to leave it together and if you have me rebuild it then you can come down when i take it apart. The reason i say this is it is easier for me to analize what happened if no one else screws with it. Not only do you need to fix it but it would also be nice to know what caused the problem so that it doesn't happen again.

 

[dremu]

The best advice i can give you is to leave it together and if you have me rebuild it then you can come down when i take it apart. The reason i say this is it is easier for me to analize what happened if no one else screws with it. Not only do you need to fix it but it would also be nice to know what caused the problem so that it doesn't happen again.

Heh heh. Fair nuff... and yeah, be nice to know what dumb thing I did (well, the wife was driving, so we'll blame it on her ) so it doesn't happen again

-- A