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Crack in tractor head question

F

Farmallb

Well-known Member
Ive got a head that I found out had been patched before I bought the tractor. My question is, if a
head is cracked on the outside will water still get in the oil, which is what happened in this Case.
 
Very hard to say all depends on where it is cracked and how it was fixed. Best to have it checked by a good machine shop but most of the time a cracked head means on need to replace it with a good one that is not cracked
 
Cracked heads are regularly repaired and work fine. All three on my 1030 were cracked and repaired and it works fine. It all depends on the head and where it's cracked.
 
I have an IHC T-6, same motor as the M. It has an external head crack under the valve cover.
And when it is warmed up, you can see the drops forming at the crack and running into the crankcase.
I used some stop-leak, but that only slowed it down.
Need to clean it up and use some of that epoxy metal(name escapes at the moment).
 
If it's only cracked to the outside then obviously no it won't mix with the oil. If it has other damage inside then yes. But plenty of blocks and heads have from freezing have broken on the outside and never leaked inside.
 
Is this a freeze crack?

External, as in totally on the outside, not under the valve cover?

If so, then the coolant won't go into the oil, but it will leak to the outside, which is still not good. It might could be repaired, but unless it's something rare and impossible to find or very expensive, replacing it would be my preference.

But...

Freeze cracked engines freeze from the bottom up. It is rare for a head to crack and the block to not also be cracked. Blocks can crack internally, which will leak coolant into the oil, but not leak externally.

So if the engine has been frozen, don't assume that just the head was cracked, could be other hidden damage.
 
It had been fixed by JB weld, which finally gave in. The cracks was greatest at/near the top center, but a slight crack ran down around 1/2 way down the side. I have ran this engine around 20yrs not knowing of this patch and farmed with it.
 
"I have ran this engine around 20yrs not knowing of this patch and farmed with it."

That being the case, assuming you never had water in the oil in those
20 years, I would patch it again and hope for another 20 years.
Clean everything so that it is spotless and oil-less first. Not just a bath.
Make sure you're patching bare, paint free, clean metal.
 
I had it welded by a professional. HOWEVER, when the crack developed and the water ran out, a
piston crashed, its connecting rod bent near the piston, and broken off. I dont know now if there
is a crack now in the block or not
 
I see your question is not really about the head because you say you had the head repaired, but rather about the block. Take the block to machine shop and have it Magnaflux tested for cracks. A pressure check of the coolant jacketing would be a double assurance. Do tell what brand or tractor or model is it? Outside of your user name being a clue the real identity is a mystery.
 
Back in the days when Ford's flathead V8 was popular, I knew of a machine shop in Houston, Tx. that was kept busy repairing cracked blocks where the exhaust valve seating area would crack into the cylinder due to the design of the engine and the problem getting the heat from the exhaust out of the engine. I had one of them repaired. No big deal.
 
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