Here is a 26 block that came with my first T which had last been a farm cutoff saw. The wood wheels had rotted off as you can imagine, every thing was rather rusty. Shortly after I took the engine apart I discovered this hole between the No 1 exhaust port and the water jacket. Otherwise it's in pretty nice shape. (That is sawdust you see that on the block surface)

At the time, I stopped working with this one an found another good block. The transmission was fine and it's now in my depot hack.

Since then, I been curious if there is any way to repair this type of problem. It's been taking up space in my shop.

Thanks

If this one was repairable I don't see why not, Just got to find someone real good at welding cast iron

Here is the thread
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/506218/534405.html

That's an interesting one. I've never seen a port wall get so thin from rust. In answer to your question, yes it could probably be fixed, but the more important question is, would it be worth it. If it were an early T block or the original numbers matching block (26-27) it might be worth fixing. Otherwise, T blocks are not too hard to find.

In the case of this one, also consider that once you fixed that hole, how thin are other parts of the block where water has been allowed to rust the coolant passages. That hole might be just the beginning.

Don't scrap it though. I'll take it off your hands if you need the space.

Drill it out, tap it and put in a pipe plug. If its too thin to tap, then clean it flux it and braze in a rivet.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Ted. I hadn't though abut brazing in a rivet. It makes me wonder what the temperature of that area will be when running.

Don't worry about the temperature. It'll never get hot enough to melt the brazing. There are plenty of OHC & OHV heads cast in aluminum, and the exhaust ports don't melt, as long as there is coolant present.

I would be concerned that the block had a core shift during casting. If it did there could be other thin spots elsewhere in the block. Had a Model A block that had a core shift, casting was thin in some places, thicker than normal in others. Took a center punch and hit it in random places, found a couple of places where the punch went through the water jacket. Too bad, it was a standard bore block that became yard art...