have taken my cyl. head off to cure a problem where the combustion pressure on boost was leaking into the water jacket on cylinders 2 & 3. the head gasket was damaged in those areas, and i'm not yet sure if the head is warped (will have it checked and skimmed as lightly as possible).

was prepping the block face this afternoon ready for the refit sometime later and found a crack in the block



the crack is on the exhaust side, coming out from the bolt hole between cyl. 1 & 2 and going to the water jacket forwards and backwards.



i assume that this kind of crack can only be caused by tightening the head bolts when there is oil or water in the hole - or is there any other way?

anyway, it's done now. what to do about it? ideally of course, get a new block (and take the opportunity to replace the 205 with a 200). but is it necessary? what will/could happen if i rebuild the engine as is?

 

bttt - now with pictures

 

it happened to a friend of mine in the same place on a 200 block and he scrapped the block for a new one and his head was cracked as well (new on on the way) but the engine ran fine with all that damage for a longtime and he only stripped it down for a rebuild due to high milage when he discoverded the damage.
so you can take a chance and put it back together and hope the head bolt will hold the torque and not come loose when its good and hot causing another gasket failure or change the block now while your this far in
if it was me and i had the budget to do it i would change it

 

the crack looks like it doesn't hit the cylinders. if you long studded it it may be ok but if you got to that length and strip it all down - might as well get a used or new gudun (200) cosworth have some new 200 blocks for £400 with very slight water damage.

 

cheeRS for the replies fellas.

the thing is, although i have removed the head, i can't really remove the block with the car on the drive - it's definitely against the german regulations.

i'm gonna build it back together and get my bro to get a block prepared so that next time i'm back in england we can just swap it over. will only cost me a std head gasket and a set of bolts.

have got the parts for stg 3, but will leave them off until i got a new block.

do you know the p/n for the 200 or 202 block? ford over here might have some at a reasonable price.

 

just use a 205 block , plentyful at a decent price

 

probably will. whatever block i get i will have to have bored out to +0,05 for my pistons anyway, so it seems stupid to buy a new one to have it bored out straight away. a new block would mean new pistons really, and that's just unnecessary expense.

will pick up a 205 block somewhere, get it bored out and prepped ready for a swap over in october.

i'll put the head back on as is until then. hardly drive it anyway so can't see it being a problem.