I have friend here at work and he's working on a 2002 Berger Camaro that the customer has installed different heads. Anyway the oil pan is leaking and when he got it off there's chunks of metal in the pan. You can see where the bottom of the head bolt holes are blown out maybe from debris or liquid in the holes as the head bolts were torqued. We are wondering if this block is junk or can something be done?

 

Junk if liquid was present when the heads were torqued.

 

Boat anchor

 

We are pretty sure there was coolant in the holes and that's what cause the issue. So the block is junk? With the pan off you can see the bottoms of 4 head bolts.

 

What if he runs it like that?

 

Negative ghostrider.

 

You can see the head bolts with the oil pan off? Can you get a picture of that?

 

Yes, you can see the ends of them. I'm working on getting a picture. I'm pretty sure he has one. When I get it I'll post a picture.

 

I'm not sure on this, I've got a block that the PO punched out two bolt boss bottoms on (both into the crankcase) and I just don't see the issue. Unless of course, the block is cracked. I think one could just put some sealer on those affected bolts and go with it. Doesn't affect the ability to carry torque, just sealing ability.

 

That's a better picture then I have and exactly what ours looks like!

 

Still waiting on the experts to dispute this. Looks to me the only issue is oil wicking up the threads or coolant leaking down them. That said, my block is being used only for mock-ups as I have a perfectly good L92 block for my build...

 

I'm not an expert, but I would not run that block. I would definitely get a new one for peace of mind.

 

This is what burns my a$$, statements without valid reasons. Or any reasons at all for that matter. Lot's of guys on here weld up and save blocks that have the entire starter boss blown off. I guess you'd chuck a block if a bolt hole got stripped...

 

As long as the crack doesn't spread to the cam bearing or piston sleeve, it might be all right. I would probably try it, why not, what's the worst that could happen?

 

There's probably going to be a crack in a instance like that, and because of where that is, it would be very difficult to check. You would have to use a liquid penetrant method.

 

If there was a crack, it should be fairly localized. Say, to the bottom 10% of the bolt hole and the area radially surrounding the "punch out". Which should narrow down the area to check. You think a borescope would get into the bottom of a bolt hole?

 

It's possible, but it would still be difficult to perform the test correctly as well as having good enough visibility to detect the crack. It would be very easy to miss it, even with a decent inspector and an expensive borescope.

 

You can check it out for cracks but about every third LSx aluminum block I see looks like that with a few of these blown out bolt hole bottoms and they seem to run fine. It's certainly not good for the block but hasn't seemed to cause any issues so far with as many as I've seen like that. When I'm final washing blocks and blowing out the head bolt holes when I'm through I always find these deals where the bolts hydro-locked and blew the hole out at the bottom. It's surprisingly common on engines that people worked on or changed heads on.