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I feel i know the answer to this question already. But i thought i would give it a try. Last week my ls1 snapped a rod which resulted in 2 coin size holes in my block. Im fairly confident it was caused from hydrolock. Being that the cylinder with the snapped rod has filled with coolant. The rod snapped on start up. The engine ran for no more that 4 seconds before i shut it off. So here is my question. These holes are pretty small. They dont apeer to be in any structual locations. The one the size of a penny im sure would be a easy fix. Its the one that is into the oil passage im worried about. Its about the size of a quarter. One of the main reason i want to try and salvage this motor is because i want to keep the car numbers matching. also to try and save money where I can. I do have 2 LM7's laying around that I picked up just in case but I'm really trying to keep it aluminum LS. Buying a replacement LS1 block is just simply not in the budget right now. That being said it does have some mods. Ms4 cam, intake, exhaust, 102mm TB, 42lbs injectors and a 150 shot of nitrious (which i never got to use because this happened) so what do you guys think fixable?
I feel the most difficult part of trying to weld the block will be the oil coating and impregnated hydrophobicity of the engine oil, might cause a lot of trouble. It might need to come completely apart to fully clean first. And even then, generally a terrible idea with small chance of success is possible.
Otherwise, I've seen much worse weld repairs on heads/blocks. If you have nothing to lose (trash it now or trash it later) I dont see any harm in trying, unless you have to spend a bunch of money to assemble it. I wouldn't put any good parts in it.
I'm not to worried about the cost. I use to work for a fabrication company. And I still got some buddies there that are really good at welding aluminum. I was also thinking for the oil passage. Finding a piece of steel that is the same diameter as the oil passage bore. Because aluminium won't weld to steel. Once it's welded just remove the steel rod.
Probably not. The think that is going to make the oil passage hole difficult to fix is that the rod punched a the hole right between the 2 oil passages that go the oil pan. But I looked at it a little more last night and I honestly believe it is possible to fix. I guess the main thing is how to go about testing the oil system after the hole is repaired to insure it is holding pressure.
Once the block is bare and COMPLETELY cleaned, I would imagine your buddies could fix you up. Unless they owe you favors or you know a little too much about them, the labor of fully prepping an oil soaked chunk of cast aluminum that size will be more costly than finding a good used block. The tiniest bit of contamination can ruin an aluminum weld, and I see a high level of difficulty in getting shielding gas around both sides of that hole in the picture with the penny.
I had some ideas for cleaning it what do you think. Totally disassembled the engine. Heated pressure wash is. Then when done with that submerge the engine in thinner. ( I was a aerospace tooling painter for a couple of years. Thinner does a amazing job cleaning bare metal. I also have 30 gallons of clean thinner laying around) scrub the engine down while submerged in thinner. Completely dry the engine using compressed air and air dry time. Before welding clean the entire damaged area with stainless steel wire brush. Heat area with torch and weld.
And even then, generally a terrible idea with small chance of success is possible.
I dont see any harm in trying, unless you have to spend a bunch of money to assemble it. I wouldn't put any good parts in it.
Again you are showing your complete ignorance, The beauty of aluminum blocks is the ability to repair them, It's done all the time and almost always successful if the person doing the work has the skill. I come from a racing background and have been around 410 sprint cars for many years, The motors cost over $50k now and trust me they do repair the blocks all the time and they do put good parts in them.
I had some ideas for cleaning it what do you think. Totally disassembled the engine. Heated pressure wash is. Then when done with that submerge the engine in thinner. ( I was a aerospace tooling painter for a couple of years. Thinner does a amazing job cleaning bare metal. I also have 30 gallons of clean thinner laying around) scrub the engine down while submerged in thinner. Completely dry the engine using compressed air and air dry time. Before welding clean the entire damaged area with stainless steel wire brush. Heat area with torch and weld.
Why not just put a different engine in it until you can afford to have it professionally repaired, Generally the block will need to be cleaned and preheated before you weld it, At the very least I would take it to a good shop to have it cleaned.
I recently traded off an LS1 short block from a car that I bought that was damaged about like yours, the #7 rod snapped from a hydro lock and put a hole in the block a little bit bigger than a dime and the ear for the starter was broken off from the previous owner trying to start it with the rod sticking out!
just for grins I called around a few machine and fabrication shops in my area (St.Louis) and asked about having it repaired. I was surprised to find that nearly everyone I talked to was confident that it could be reliably fixed! I traded it away anyways because I already had another engine for the car but if something like this ever happened to my other LS1 (I love it like one of my children) that I have owned since new I would definitely try to get it repaired. it's 2016 folks, we have the technology, we can fix anything, a little hole in some dirty aluminium is nothing to a professional fabricator.
11-28-2016, 10:23 PM
Welding up block holes from snapped rod? 
