Well, let me say this, Kelly himself was trained by the US Navy in the 1940's...his job throughout the war was to weld up and re-machine the engine blocks from the ships that cracked.... he welded up more blocks in 4 years than most machinist will ever see in a lifetime. He trained his son Dennis who worked for his dad for 30 years and then trained his protégé who actually did a lot of the machine work on my mustang 289 engine and he has owned the shop for 20 years now. The engine IS repairable. If you choose to replace it, sleeve or ? that is your choice but being that you are in SoCal and have access to one of the best machine shops on the west coast, I would let him take a look at it and advise you of the best solution.

 

But is Kelly going to go to the place and repair it without taking the engine out of the space it is in? And, is he willing to do it for the cost of a used short block?

Highly unlikely and this is where the OP is at [or at least that is what I read], not if it can be fixed, but if it can be fixed without taking the engine out of the space it is in.

With enough money, anything can be fixed, it's amazing what skills people have developed in their lifetime. But this is a small block Ford engine and ship where the ship yard built the entire ship around the engine room.

 

I'm actually in Canada, not California, but thanks for all the continued thoughts on the matter.

I wish it were as simple as pulling the engine from a car, but in this case it'd cost a thousand just to haul the boat, and another unknown chunk of money to hire a motorized crane and operator. Plus the trouble and/or expense of cutting a big rectangular hole in the cockpit bulkhead, and restoring it afterwards. As for the engine block itself, I "could" send it off to a machine shop at that point, but I'll be paying for every day the boat sits there in the yard. Probably simpler to have a new rebuilt shortblock ready and waiting.

I'll be looking at the engine again this weekend, and weighing the prospect of potentially burning oil vs the trouble of all those things I mentioned above.

 

Not to be argumentive but this question keeps going through my mind. Is there room under the block as it rests in the bilge to correctly work on the lower end? How much metal spread throughout the engine as it destroyed itself?

 

There's enough room to get the oil pan part of the way off. I can access the rod bolts, and the inside of the pan for cleaning. The piston skirt broke up into chunks and completely detached from the rod. There are also small metal shards that are largely confined to a few cylinders. I assume they spread through the intake manifold.

 

is this a straight inboard drive ,v drive or a IO ? you would be surprised at how we get motors out without cutting up the boat,

 

Inboard, connected to a transmission and straight shaft.

 

This damage is not about burning oil. The cylinder is cracked through to the water jacket. This will leak cooling water into the crankcase and it will have to be repaired to make the engine work again.

 

Respectfully, you don't know that it's cracked all the way through. I've seen worse gouges in a Ford small block that didn't actually crack it.

That being said, I sent the picture to my uncle, who is a junkyard mechanic from a dynasty of junkyard mechanics, and he said if I threw in new rings it would probably last a week. So I guess that's that, as far as hope goes.

 

Respectfully, these forums are all about opinions and sharing them. Nobody know anything by looking at pictures, but we all can share our opinions. Nobody is right or wrong. I see not a gouge, but a crack. Gouges and cracks are different.

That said, it's my experience if cast cracks, it's cracked all the way through. I should be easy to determine if it is or not, but like you have already mentioned, it appears that your uncle has shed some light on this situation and you have a huge financial decision. It might just leak when the block warms up too [assuming it's not leaking now].

It would be nice to know the rest of the story what ever you decide to do or what the repair ended up.

 

Gouges don't usually cause much harm. It seems like they would but because they are in relief the ring doesn't really "see" them very much at all. Rust pits can certainly fall into the category. While I don't know for sure that it is cracked all the way through I can see the crack farther down and that looks to me like it has been weeping water. Maybe not so I'd say try putting some water into that side of the block if that's possible and see if comes through after sitting for a while, hopefully over night.

 

Respectfully also. One of the pictures shows what I also see as coolant seeping through the crack. I believe you now see as several of us do, there "ain't no easy way out" of this problem. And like others have said, please show us the repair story as it unfolds. Pictures would be great. Edit: I like the idea of having a strongly built long block with the correct cam ready to go in. Good luck and try to have fun.

 

If removing the block from the boat is basically impossible repair will have to be done using a portable boring bar. A Van Norman 777 or preferably the smaller 944.

Getting it set up on the block won't be super difficult with a couple of strong workers. Once set up the cylinder will have to be bored to fit a repair sleeve which could be .1875 or .250 over - a couple of thousandths for a press fit. It will bore just like the block is sitting on a stand. Then the bar can be removed and the sleeve installed. This can be done by carefully knocking it in place using a large hammer and a driver that fits the sleeve. Usually brake fluid is used to lubricate the OD of the sleeve to make it go into the block easier and without galling. Before installation the sleeve should be measured for length and cut so that it'll stick above the deck .375 or so after it is seated. Then the boring bar can be set up again and used to cut the sleeve down to very close to even with the deck. Then the ID of the sleeve has to be bored to about .005 less than the finished cylinder diameter after which it has to be honed by hand using a rigid Sunnen AN portable hone. Finally the sleeve has to be hand filed to be even with the deck.

All of this will make a lot of chips, honing oil and junk that will have to be cleaned from inside of the block using a cleaner like Castrol Super Clean, Purple Power etc and then washed with dish soap and water, pressure washed and then oiled down. Then you can put it all back together again.

Lots of work but not impossible and once repaired it will work as good as new. At the same time it would probably be worthwhile to deglaze and freshen up all the rest of the cylinders. Check for collapsed pistons, crushed ring lands etc from the trash that flew through the engine.

 

Thanks for all the input so far. I think this weekend I'm going to obtain a shop crane and assemble it on the boat, to plan out how this might work.

It obviously wasn't meant for this, and I won't be able to deploy the front braces, so I'll have to counter balance it. And lowering the block over the side of the boat without dropping it in the river could be interesting, but at least it's not a full engine. Should be around 250lbs. I'll post a few more pictures as I go.

 

Two strong men should be able to handle a short block, no heads or manifolds, lift it to the deck and take a break. Then to over the gunnel. Is the gunnel at pier level or do you have a difference of height?