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Ok, I know the BB blocks used in the 360's were of lesser quality, but I'm trying to come up with an explanation for this:
Curious...
I know I'm the first person in this motor. 74k miles. Did the factory do this?
To add to the mix here, the block is 8L21, the intake is 8L23 and the other head has 8L25. This head is 8L15. So it looks like someone dropped a head and busted the side wall, it went somewhere and got welded up and was back in rotation when my motor was built. Plausible. Anyone else see anything like this? There's a pinch in the gasket surface that's mimicked perfectly in the cork gasket still in the valve cover so I at least know my machine shop didn't do this.
Upon further examination, there are a few other voids filled with weld so I'm going with factory. The cast probably had a big void there and they just filled it up. In fact I noticed voids (not filled) in the other head in non critical areas. Never seen that on any of the car line components and I have quite a few 289's and assorted pieces.
Yes, original motor and unless something happened under warranty I'm the first person to pull it out. Still has the original exhaust pipes and clutch disc. Heck, the tranny seal to the hump cover was still in place. The only thing that was replaced on this motor when I got it was the water pump. Everything else was original.
Back when I was working as a mechanic I would see remanufactured engine short blocks and heads come in with welded sections. I would reject them and get a better one for a customer. I've seen up to 13 welds between the cylinders in a 4 cyl block. A truck this age very well may have had the heads replaced along the way. Just go find another head.
No need to find another head. It still works. Just has an ugly side. It will just go back against the firewall. And this is a 74k orig mile dump truck so I doubt it was a replacement. Besides, wouldn't you replace it with a better one? And the replacement would certainly have a later casting date than the rest of the motor instead of an earlier one. The motor is also the original. It was built about 20 days before the truck. Pretty sure at this point that Ford was shuffling the seconds to the fleet truck line. It's a work vehicle. Owner just wants it to work. They know it's going to get beat up.
