Some may have seen from the Members Projects section, I recently bought a complete SOHC engine that had been rebuilt, but not finished. The block used is a 1972 service replacement side oiler. I took the block to my local machine shop, as the decks were not quite square. I picked the block from them this morning, and started cleaning it when I got home. Almost straight away I noticed this:
It is at the front of the block on the LH deck. I cleaned all the paint and crap from the front of the block, and the crack doesn't appear to extend below the deck at the front. It looks like it may have been repaired there in the past. The area at the front of the block underneath where the crack is looks to have been ground or rough machined, it's not rough cast like the outside of a block normally is. Here is a picture of the front face of the block, just below where the crack is.
I'm a bit annoyed that either the machine shop owner didn't notice the crack, or neglected to tell me about it. Before I load the block back into my car and take it back, I wanted to ask whether this sort of crack should be repaired, or due to it's location at the front of the block and away from any high stress areas, it would be okay to live with it? I'm not aiming for huge power from this engine, maybe about 500-550hp. I would prefer to keep all the rare factory SOHC parts in good condition.
