Crushing discovery - head is cracked.

[JsnPpp]

Good luck with this, our fingers are crossed for you.

 

Q: Since its the head and oil has come out I'm assuming first drain the engine oil and let it drip naturally from the crack before introducing brake cleaner? Also, is this something that could be seen from the top w/ valve cover removed? If so could make sure the JB gets all the way through.

 

Not done this, hope I never do, but curious none the less.

 

Jason

[jimk]

Drain the block before pulling the head.

[JsnPpp]

4 hours ago, jimk said:

Drain the block before pulling the head.

 

Ah, for some reason I was thinking this was possible with the head installed. Got it, answers my question. 👍

[Son of Marty]

No need that I see, that if trying the JB weld, to remove the head, if that don't stop the leak then the next step would be to remove the head and weld it and have it skimmed along with the front cover.

[Pablo M]

12 hours ago, JsnPpp said:

Good luck with this, our fingers are crossed for you.

 

Q: Since its the head and oil has come out I'm assuming first drain the engine oil and let it drip naturally from the crack before introducing brake cleaner? Also, is this something that could be seen from the top w/ valve cover removed? If so could make sure the JB gets all the way through.

 

Not done this, hope I never do, but curious none the less.

 

Jason

No, can’t see the crack inside the head. I pulled the valve cover thinking I might be able to. The crack is on the housing where the head bolt goes through, one of the two that are outside the valve cover. I need to make sure it doesn’t go too far in that it welds the head bolt lol. I think someone told me I could pull just the one head bolt but that doesn’t sound right to me. 
 

11 hours ago, jimk said:

Drain the block before pulling the head.

 

6 hours ago, JsnPpp said:

 

Ah, for some reason I was thinking this was possible with the head installed. Got it, answers my question. 👍

As Son of Marty said, I’m not planning to pull the head. If that repair doesn’t work I will be forced to pull head and have it welded. 
Im also not planning to drain the oil. The oils going to drain into the pan by Friday when I get around to doing the repair. 

[NickVyse]

Personally I would pull that head bolt - with a cold non-running engine it's not going to do anything.

 

Normally I'd spray brake cleaner down the bore to clean the thread, but I'd worry about contaminating the head gasket.

 

So may be this is a bad idea as you might end up with an oily difficult to clean bore.

 

That's the end of this pointless post - I'll go and brew some coffee, it's early here.

Edited May 13 by NickVyse

[NickVyse]

so coffee done I'd leave the bolt in but turn it during the curing time if you're worried you got any JB that far in, then retorque at the end.

 

 

[Tdh]

I like to goof around and post stupid crap on this board for laughs, but not this tine. You’re clearly really upset by this (rightly so). Soooo, goodf ball mode off/serious mode on…
 

Man, don’t waste your time screwing around with trying to JB weld the crack up.  It’s not going to work.  At least not for very long anyway, and that’s if you get extremely lucky. That’s a difficult place to clean, you’ll never get it “clean enough” and even if you do, the likelihood of the JB Weld holding up is extremely low.  Use the time to remove the head, and get it to the shop for assessment/repair. If for some reason it’s not repairable, go ahead and start getting yourself in the headspace of having to pony up for a new head. 

No offense to anyone who posted for trying it. 

 

 

 

 

['76mintgrün'02]

Getting it clean enough for the epoxy to get a good grip is the tricky part.  Multiple rounds of brake cleaner and an air compressor/blower tip seem like your best bet.  I don't think the bolt will be clean enough for the epoxy to get a good grip on it.

 

Epoxy benefits from a rough surface.  The inside of the crack seems ideal, aside from the oil contamination.  I'd scuff up the area on both sides of the crack and spread the epoxy out over that too, leaving it a good 1/16" thick.  It won't look as pretty as if you just put it inside the crack, but that Band-Aid over the top stands a good chance of gripping, since you can ensure that it's clean 'new' metal.  Leave it rough to have some tooth for it to grip.

 

This is such a cheap/easy fix that you might as well try it.  The welder will be grinding material out of the crack anyway.  TIG welding requires cleanliness too.

Tom

[resra]

Been there done that, JB anything is very temporary. Waste of time, money and energy. 

 

You can try but not going to work. Sorry. 

[bmw_e30]

with the right prep jb weld can and is a short to medium term fix i'd go ahead and do it and run the car until you are ready to pull the head down the road

[popovm]

My counterpoint is that I have seen JB Weld “temporary” trail fixes on dual sport motorcycle cases last for years. I am on team “give it a shot”. Yes, probably should start planning for a real fix. I’d also call up the machine shop. Maybe the machine shop will hook you up with a free/discounted fix but would prefer it without the JB Weld in there. That would change my opinion on whether or not to attempt the JB Weld. 

[Son of Marty]

I think JB Weld is becoming a universal name for epoxy and is meant for household  use while there are many stronger epoxies that bond better than JB I would look for a epoxy with some metal content like Devcon or Marine Tex or even Redhand. I've seen Redhand used to repair cracked wet liner seats which tend to crack on Cat diesels with great success. I've patched a whole about the size of a deck of playing cards on a Allison v12 with Devcon and had it last for years and a few thousand liters of nitrous.

[larry_in_socal]

Sorry to hear about this. Man, you have been doing a lot to get your car back on the road, now this!! Son-of-Marty is right there are a bunch of "space-age"epoxies out there that would work wonders. there's always a give and take, trade-off, and I would be asking myself what if the epoxy holds? that would be the best case.. but what about the worst case? That's something that only you could decide and you would have to pro and con the decision. If you are rushing to get to the car meet, that might not be a good criteria in making that decision. Does that location get oil pressure? or is it a place where gravity is pulling the oil down? if there is no pressure at that point, then the risk level goes way down...and I would say YOLO...Again, sorry to hear about this as we have all spent quality time getting our rigs road worthy.. on the bright-side you discovered the leak before anything catastrophic happened miles away.

[Tdh]

10 hours ago, larry_in_socal said:

Son-of-Marty is right there are a bunch of "space-age"epoxies out there that would work wonders. there's always a give and take, trade-off, and I would be asking myself what if the epoxy holds? that would be the best case.. but what about the worst case? That's something that only you could decide and you would have to pro and con the decision. 

This was really my original point. @Pablo M is clearly very upset by this, and rightly so. I get it. When you’ve worked on something for a long time, and shit goes sideways it can be demotivating. The best medicine for that is to not F around and just fix it the right way, take the worry of “will it work or not” out of the equation and move on to the next phase of the project. 
 

I agree with @Son of Martythat there are considerably better products out there. I’ve used two of the three he mentioned for various things. Admittedly, I am not a fan of JB weld for anything (even household repairs) and I’ll openly admit that it annoys me every time I see a YouTube video pop up of some “fix” a person came up with using the stuff. 
 

I’ve seen and done “emergency” repairs on bikes and cars like what’s proposed by @popovm and others. The ones that lasted (particularly on bikes) were generally on machines that didn’t get ridden much. IMO it’s a crap shoot. Sometimes repairs like this last a while, sometimes they don’t.