Hole in block?

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awohlers

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I bought a 1970 Duster with a "freshly built" 400. The motor was out of the car, never ran, never started. Pulled the oil pan, crank, valve and cylinder walls all look brand new. Today I went to the MOPAR spring fling, bought some goodies, came home to paint my engine and started wrenching. Took off the intake manifold and the valley pan and saw this. My friend is a diesel mechanic and said he'd take it back. My dad's friend builds hot rod motors as a hobby and said it should be fine. He also said someone might have done this intentionally to create more oil flow to the crank and timing chain. Anyways I paid 4k for the car rolling chassis and 2k for the motor (the way the ad was broken up he was offering everything for 6k or 4k just for the roller). I'm not crazy in wanting 2k back right?

Thanks,
-Adam

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That would scare me. It doesn't even look like it was done with a die grinder, more like a hammer. I would think the block would be severely weakened
 
It looks like the timing chain broke and smashed a hole in it or it was hammered out, not machines at all. I also did pay for a "freshly built motor" not a new motor in a cracked block. I just didn't want to be a jerk and made sure I was justified in asking for my money back.
 
Seems like non of you above have ever taken a close look at a bigblock engine casting.
That's "normal".
I personally would have smoothed the edges during the build, but that's how most of the later blocks came from the factory.


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not just the later blocks.
here is a 1970 440 block and a 1965 383.
that spot has been in every one of the big block Mopars I've seen
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True, but imo later on in time the factory workers seemed to care a little less on how they knocked clean the casting.
 
BigBlockMopar said:
Seems like non of you above have ever taken a close look at a bigblock engine casting.
That's "normal".
I personally would have smoothed the edges during the build, but that's how most of the later blocks came from the factory.


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That is crude at best. Thanks for the info. My head was spinning over here! That's super crude factory work. I wonder why they didn't machine it out and practically beat it with a hammer instead.
 
LOL reading down and looking at the pics I was thinking I would not sell crap to these guys that are calling a stock casting junk and saying take it back. I am glad someone else with experience posted before me. At least the OP was smart enough to ask us.
 
chryslerfat said:
LOL reading down and looking at the pics I was thinking I would not sell crap to these guys that are calling a stock casting junk and saying take it back. I am glad someone else with experience posted before me. At least the OP was smart enough to ask us.
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Now I feel stupid. I googled first too and nothing. I figured someone else would have stripped their first MOPAR big block down and had a WTF moment too.
 
What's up with that lifter on the right? Looks gnarly from here.
 
The lifters have lots of grease on them. The silver of the grease blends with the metal and it looks like they're all chewed up in the pics.
 
You got the motor half a part if It were me I would take it all the way apart deburr the block everywhere clean it and put it back together. I do it on every motor I put together.
 
brian6pac said:
You got the motor half a part if It were me I would take it all the way apart deburr the block everywhere clean it and put it back together. I do it on every motor I put together.
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I would, but I have no idea how to assemble a short block. I may still take down to the local speed shop and have the guy there do it. His name's Jim Grubbs, he's supposed to be one of the best engine builders around.
 
BigBlockMopar said:
Seems like non of you above have ever taken a close look at a bigblock engine casting.
That's "normal".
I personally would have smoothed the edges during the build, but that's how most of the later blocks came from the factory.

Sorry, but when I saw the chip on the right side of casting and the discoloration in the casting it that area, it bothered me. I too have wrenched on these since the 80s and I never saw one that ugly. I know I would feel really guilty putting an engine out for sale looking like that. A little work with a carbide bit would have helped a bunch, not only for the oil flow, but for chamfering the rough edges of the casting. I never said it wasn't of use, I just would not be comfortable using it with power adders or ultra high performance in my opinion. I really don't feel the insults were needed

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awohlers said:
Now that looks like something that was done intentionally. You're making me want to spend the extra cash. It's only money right? :rofl:
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I was thinking, simply casting flash all the way thru the posts. I`d take it apart and grind all of the casting flash everywhere and reclean and assemble it , if it were me .----and I wasn`t 70 yrs old !!
 
The only reason I clean all the casting flash is I have taken motors apart and found big and small pieces in the oil pan, even found a lifter once? it had 17.
 
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