Block Casting

jdr1943

Member
Just curious as to how the inside of an engine block is cast I can understand how part of it is done but the water jackets and oil galleys are puzzling to me I know it is cast in sand if anyone has a video of how they cast the inside of blocks or most anything I would enjoy watching it.
 
Ceramic cores are suspended in the sand mold. The cores are soft and easily broken up and removed through holes in the casting. That's why you see cup or welch plugs (often called freeze plugs) in blocks and heads. Others may add here, my experience with casting is limited.
 
Here is a picture of the inside of a JD head my son is making. It is a practice sand casting to see if everything will work before actually having it poured. Lots of detail work involved like thinking from the inside out and in a the negative. Everything has to have an angle to it so it can be pulled from the actual mold. This is what has to fit inside of the actual outside portion of the mold.
cvphoto10009.jpg
 
Pre-formed cores are the answer as others have stated. In the case of the block this is a sand casting and the cores would have been made via a baked process where sand treated with a binder (in those days oil-based) is sprayed into a heated mold. After baking the mold opens and the core is ejected. The outer shape of the core body is the passage that will be in the casting. After the sand mold is pressed against the match plate, or pattern, the cores are placed into locators that suspend the cores away from the sand impression. The gap between the cores and the sand impression is what creates the wall thickness of the casting which in this case would be the water jacket. The sand mold is assembled and metal is then poured into the cavity. After solidification the part can be freed up from the sand and the cores are removed by vibratory or blasting steps.

My father ran a foundry when I was very young and I spent time out on the production floor making cores, pouring metal, and knocking cores out. It gave me a great foundation to assume ownership of a foundry that I run today. We make aircraft grade investment castings which is a significantly different approach to the same basic thing.

You might find our website interesting:
Shellcast, Inc
 
.........My father ran a foundry when I was very young and I spent time out on the production floor making cores, pouring metal, and knocking cores out. It gave me a great foundation to assume ownership of a foundry that I run today. We make aircraft grade investment castings which is a significantly different approach to the same basic thing.

You might find our website interesting:
Shellcast, Inc

Nice operation!!! I retired from a company that did lots of machining on investment castings from Precision Castparts. I had the good fortune to visit their facilities on several occasions. Very interesting!
 
In addition to sand casting, permanent mold, and aluminum die-casting I have worked at a number of investment casting plants around the country and for the most part have always competed against PCC. They are a force to be reckoned with because they are so massive.

Interestingly one thing we find is that when they buy up companies they tend to let the old timers go because they make too much and the young replacements don't have the same expertise. No surprise their capabilities drop off a bit and angry customers move work elsewhere. We have a number of jobs that have come from some of their plants and we are happy to have the work.
 
Yes, PCC are a tough company to work with. As a vendor, we were always being pressured to cut our prices and at the same time jump through production scheduling hoops that served their need to post good quarterly statements. Got to keep those shareholders happy!

In spite of that, it was fascinating to see some of the complex shapes and features and close tolerances that the investment casting process is capable of.
 
My girlfriends father worked for one day at a foundry. He stood on top of a huge piece of sand that had a casting in it, and used a sledge hammer to remove the sand. He thought that it must have been a casting for large piece of construction equipment. His complaint was that his feet got so hot that he could barely stand it.
I have wondered how many tons of green sand mold castings that I turned in 32 years of turning cast iron.
 
A fellow I went to school with now runs a small casting company his dad bought in the 1970's, mostly sand cast aluminum, they used to make the waffle irons you see in hotel breakfast areas among other parts.

He says it runs about 40F above outside temperature inside the building at all times, which is only great when it is 30F outside. Summertime is HOT!
 

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