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Thread: Engine with block rot question

  1. #21
    Senior Member cis6409's Avatar
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    Block rot

    Hi Chris that last picture there you posted is of a local owner here in Ireland ..
    He has tryed welding it with aluminium rods twice I believe and both times it leaked .
    It seems there s at least more than a few holes . He is now in the process of doing an engine swap .

    I have been looking into this with great interest to as my valley had holes in the trenches to .. thankfully they didn't go all the way thru . A friend recommended a company in cork to try a new process of aluminium welding .
    I sent the car down with valley completely stripped and he prepped the entire surface and trenches of the valley by giving it a etch of soda blast and then used a special gun to shoot molten molecular aluminium to fill the holes up..
    I done this 4 or so years ago and still holding up well fingers crossed !..
    It's another option dunno if anyone else has tryed it ..
    But I definitely believe there has got to be a way of fixing the rot
    Cheers
    Shane
    only from the past can we choose the correct path for the future...

  2. #22
    Senior Member cis6409's Avatar
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    Block rot

    Here's some pics of the process and how bad my rot was

    Sorry about how small some of the pics are I can't get them any bigger

    Cheers
    Shane
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    only from the past can we choose the correct path for the future...

  3. #23
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    I sent the car down with valley completely stripped and he prepped the entire surface and trenches of the valley by giving it a etch of soda blast and then used a special gun to shoot molten molecular aluminium to fill the holes up..
    I done this 4 or so years ago and still holding up well fingers crossed !..
    It's another option dunno if anyone else has tryed it ..
    But I definitely believe there has got to be a way of fixing the rot
    Cheers
    Shane
    Cheers Shane,
    Yes I remember now, it does seem a novel approach were they all ok about doing this with the engine in-situ? Did it worry you at all about any of the molten stuff blocking any of the oil galleries? Is there a specific name to this process?
    Thanks
    Chris
    Chris Williams #15768 Back on the road after 14 years. Ex#4584
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  4. #24
    Senior Member cis6409's Avatar
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    Talking

    Hi Chris
    Yeah they had no problem doing it with the engine In situ in fact they didn't take the car off the trailer. They masked the entire car off very well and everything else to ..

    The process is called thermal/spray welding , I believe it's also used on oil rigs and such . I think it's a variant of cold welding also ?


    I didn't worry about the molten metal getting into oil gallery's because thankfully the holes were bad but not gone all the way through (apologies if I mis stated that )
    I decided to do this as a preventive step to arrest the rot from going any further ..
    He also filled and capped the trenches with the molten aluminium as I think you can see In the pics .

    Cheers
    Shane
    only from the past can we choose the correct path for the future...

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by cis6409 View Post
    Hi Chris
    Yeah they had no problem doing it with the engine In situ in fact they didn't take the car off the trailer. They masked the entire car off very well and everything else to ..

    The process is called thermal/spray welding , I believe it's also used on oil rigs and such . I think it's a variant of cold welding also ?


    I didn't worry about the molten metal getting into oil gallery's because thankfully the holes were bad but not gone all the way through (apologies if I mis stated that )
    I decided to do this as a preventive step to arrest the rot from going any further ..
    He also filled and capped the trenches with the molten aluminium as I think you can see In the pics .

    Cheers
    Shane
    Hi Shane, sorry for reviving an old post, but, since you had this done a few years ago, how has it been holding up on your engine block?

  6. #26
    Senior Member cis6409's Avatar
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    Hi
    Yes it was holding fine no issues at all it held up well. however the car is off the road for last while as Im doing a full engine rebuild. Nothing to do with the block rot, thankfully.

    40 year old head gasket finally gave up through age and degradation . Compromised itself on cylinder 1 by letting exhaust gasses into coolant circuit. Took a while to diagnose cause it was a small failure on the gasket itself but in the end a fail none the less.

    Hopefully she ll be as good as new when Its finished.


    Shane
    Last edited by cis6409; 06-05-2020 at 11:33 AM.
    only from the past can we choose the correct path for the future...

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by cis6409 View Post
    Hi
    Yes it was holding fine no issues at all it held up well. however the car is off the road for last while as Im doing a full engine rebuild. Nothing to do with the block rot, thankfully.

    40 year old head gasket finally gave up through age and degradation . Compromised itself on cylinder 1 by letting exhaust gasses into coolant circuit. Took a while to diagnose cause it was a small failure on the gasket itself but in the end a fail none the less.

    Hopefully she ll be as good as new when Its finished.


    Shane
    Thanks for the quick reply! So no issues with the new aluminum that was applied to the block during the process, nothing peeling away? Good luck with the rebuild!

  8. #28
    Senior Member cis6409's Avatar
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    No, no issues of peeling or adhesion - Once the prep is done correctly it should be good.
    I don't know if anyone else has ever done this on other prv blocks, I know no one else in Ireland has done it. After weighing up the pros and cons of it, for me it was worth a shot.

    I still think " normal" welding can be done to fix block rot once it's not gone to far . Welding 'Cast aluminium' is a very rare skill at least in my part of the world. Loads of normal steel/iron welders and aluminium welders but very few had any decent experience with cast aluminum which was the catch for me at the time ..
    Last edited by cis6409; 06-05-2020 at 02:33 PM.
    only from the past can we choose the correct path for the future...

  9. #29
    LS Swapper Josh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cis6409 View Post
    Here's some pics of the process and how bad my rot was

    Sorry about how small some of the pics are I can't get them any bigger

    Cheers
    Shane
    It seems like it would have been way easier just to pull the engine.

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