Cracked block repair

I have the infamous cracks of the lower webbing in a Z134 block. I have searched the old posts and see that some try to use sealants in the coolant and some try using tension rods to clamp the block and hold it together. I know the best choice is to find a good block. I am trying to avoid spending another 700-800 for a block. I have no idea the history of this engine, bought it as a project and it is living up to that title. So I don't know if it leaked massive amounts of coolant into the oil pan or not. I bought it as a nonrunner an
Does anyone have pics of the tension rod fix? I have read about it, but never seen it. Wondering about the placement and keeping the drilled hole from leaking coolant.

(quoted from post at 14:46:52 06/18/18) I have the infamous cracks of the lower webbing in a Z134 block. I have searched the old posts and see that some try to use sealants in the coolant and some try using tension rods to clamp the block and hold it together. I know the best choice is to find a good block. I am trying to avoid spending another 700-800 for a block. I have no idea the history of this engine, bought it as a project and it is living up to that title. So I don't know if it leaked massive amounts of coolant into the oil pan or not. I bought it as a nonrunner an
Does anyone have pics of the tension rod fix? I have read about it, but never seen it. Wondering about the placement and keeping the drilled hole from leaking coolant.

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Surely someone out there has attempted and succeeded in solving this problem. I would love to hear about it.

The cross bolting is not a easy repair, what I would do if you have the engine all apart is to sand blast the lower part of the block with something to protect the inner bore where the sleeves go in (like cut the lower section of the old sleeves, and pit them in place) and sand blast about up 1/2" the side wall of the block to get rid of the rust. Then clean the block really good, install the new sleeves, the crankshaft, torque the main caps down. Then find a good epoxy that is made to be used with cast iron (that can expand, and contract like cast iron does, can stand heat, but doesn't expand, or contract when it dries), and fill about 1/4" on the bottom so that the epoxy can go around all the sleeves. I've never tried it, but its an idea I came up with. The main thing would be to find the right epoxy.

On some racing engines with thin cylinder walls (before good reinforced racing cylinder block became available), A lot of race engine builders would fill the lower half of the water jackets with epoxy, or something simular to stabilize the lower part of the cylinders so they would stay round. So that's where I got the idea of filling the very bottom of the block.