Cracked block 550 Ford Backhoe

rlp in Co.

Well-known Member
I had a 3 hour job pulling a truck out of the mud. On the way I noticed that the temperature gauge said cold. When I got home I noticed it was steaming a little bit from the overflow tube. Next day I checked it out and it was low on water. It still had a gallon of water left. I filled it up and I see bubbles coming out. Why wouldn't the temperature gauge show hot without water? I'm pretty sure it's good. I wonder if someone sabotaged my tractor. I always check the oil, radiator and grease it before a job, but because this was late at nite, I just jumped in and went. Story of my life.
Do you think I can put plugs in it like Cummins did?



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I think temp gauges need to be submerged to work. I don't think they will read air temp. This if you were already low, then it wouldn't read anything.
 
Just worked on a car last week that was very low on water and the gauge was mid-range. With no water flowing across the sender it doesn't work right. The shell is block temp, but the sensor part is in the air, inside but no water so air.

I've run into this many times over the years.
 
You guys don't see the crack? It just barely goes into the cylinder at the top about 1/32". It is deeper towards the middle. I was thinking I might try ving it out and melting lead in it. I think the cylinders are solid metal between the cylinders. I don't think that there are any pin holes. No water was leaking into the cylinder with the block full of water.
 
I'm confused as well. Maybe it's the light, but I don't see the crack either. I see a groove at 3:00. Usually, in my experience, the affected cylinder is cleaned by the steam cleaning of coolant getting into the cylinder. They don't look cleaned at all. We do a combustion leak test prior to head removal to verify bubbles are combustion gasses and not coolant bubbles. I would do a dye penetrant test. The three can kit is at regular auto parts stores. Maybe the crack in person is very clear, but if you can't verify the crack, that means you have another issue. I say this with all due respect.
 
Sorry Rip, The image contrast is not great enough for me to see if it is a gouge or crack because it appears to be a straight line. The slip fit liners made for these engines are flanged and that would seal the cylinder. Silicone seal outside the flange might seal it. If that truely is a crack others may know better than I how to fix it. It is still curious how the water loss ocurred in the first place.

Sometimes pin holes do not necessarily leak under ambient conditions.

I do know that these Basildon Series Diesel engines have enough side wall clearance to allow ultrasonic resonance vibrations during the combustion initiation resulting in cavitation. They fixed this in the Genesis engines by casting a tie bar across the block side and the cylinders. Other manufacturers have had similar problems.

This has been covered a number of times before, but I don't now which times.
 
Maybe you can point out where you think the problem is in a new photo. Seems there are a few opinions where the problem is.
 
Rip,

Does the crack run across to both cylinders? There does appear to be a faint line next to the bright mark that extends across to both bores.
 
I’m not sure that’s a crack
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But it definitely could be causing you to lose water had a Cummins engine with a mark like that in the head and it lost a lot of water
 
Thanks for the replies. It's definitely a small crack. I used a magnifying glass and I can feel it with my knife. The rear cylinder was also a little cleaner than the others. I ran it for about 45 minutes and it steadily sent bubbles and lost about a pint of water and I couldn't find any leaks. From looking in the water jacket holes it looks like the cylinders are Siamesed together, so maybe there's no water under the crack? If that's the case, just put some silicone on it and put the head back on? The crack does go into the cylinder wall, but it only goes down a tiny bit. maybe 1/32 or not more than 1/16" down. Can I braze the crack or would it just crack again as it cooled?
 
I am a little perplexed as to why a crack would form making a blind pit. Perhaps ASEguy is right in that you should get a dye penetrant test kit to make sure that this does not go deeper or extend longer than it appears. It might later propagate into something worse.

I might expect this sometimes when I bake cornbread, but I have never seen this on a block, but maybe on a rib or web. To me its like a fissure opening in the middle of a garden with no underlying cause except maybe for a sinkhole.

Is there any corresponding feature on the head at the matching interface?
 
I can't see the crack.
I have a good 201 block here if you need one.
It's the later type with the xtra bracing in it. Engine had very few hours on it.
 
Silicone will never seal that, compression and heat will take it right out, top of block needs to be flat.
 
I would suggest having a pro look at the "crack" and magnaflux it before making any decisions as to how to proceed.
 
Ok, I checked out those dots. They were rust spots where a couple of drops of water was on the bare iron. You know how fast rust happens. I filled the block back up with water just to make sure that there are no pin holes.
 

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