The reason I ask is because I have just bought a boat that has a cracked block from not being drained for the winter. The previous owner said he discovered it while he was driving the boat on the lake and water started coming in. This tells me that (probably) everything on the engine is in useable condition except for the block. I didn't notice any water in the oil, so I think there should not have been any damage from lack of lubrication to the heads, valves, ect. It looks like the ONLY thing that was damaged was the block, so it looks like if all the bell housings are the same (I was planning on going late 70's - Early 80"s) then I should not have much problem with switching them out.
Here is another Question for all you gear heads. If I do some investigating and find that the only crack in the block is from the outside, can it be welded, or patched in some way. I used to work at Checker, and one day as I was roaming the salesfloor trying to get to know my products as a good partsman should, and I was reading the back of some J B WELD and it mentioned that the city of Chicago used it to repair an engine block on a Caterpiller Diesel, do you guy's think it could work on a little boat engine? The coolant system on cars I have been told only runs on 10-15psi. Would a weld hold that much pressure? I know you can't, as a general rule, weld engine blocks, but can you patch weld?
The crack isn't by any stud holes so the only pressure it would have to hold is water presure. What do you think?
P.S. I know this is not a boat repair chat room, but I figure if anyone would know about broken parts and how to fix them, this would be the place to find those people!
