Assessing a 3.5 engine for rebuild regarding water passages.

Oldskoolrob

Oldskoolrob

Active Member
Hi guru's,
Is there any way to test the integrity of the water passages of a 3.5 block in your shed at home? Block I'm looking at has a bit of corrosion in the hoses I pulled off, but how much is too much? I don't want to rebuild it only to find the block is cracked. Is taking it to a shop the only way to check it? How do they check it?
 
Depends how far you want to go. You could make plates and gaskets to cover the waterways in the head faces of the block held down by the head bolts, and make two for the ones behind the front cover, making one them with a take off so you can fill the block with water and pressurize it, but even that will only tell you what it's like cold, not at operating temperature. Or you could just pay someone else to do it.......
 
As Harvey says. Here's a couple of pictures, I cut rubber gaskets from old inner tubes. These two pictures are saving Harvey another 1917 words ;):
1635509623285.pnganother picture, saving Harvey two thousand words....
1635509685991.png
 
Now, if I could only take and post photographs....

It would definitely save my fingertips bleeding from all that typing....
 
A good visual will tell you a fair bit. In forty odd years I have never pressure tested a head or block before machining, and have never been unlucky to have an engine fail due to an internal issue with a crack etc.
If you really doubt a block and it is the only one available to you, get it top hat linered, more expense yes, but you won't have any further worries.
 
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