Umm... What are these rods?

[FrozenCaveman]

This is one of the weirdest finds I've ever made in my car...

So I've been having some temperature issues with my 71 Scamp's slant-6. It started running up pretty hot in traffic and then would cool back down if I started moving again. More recently it just ran hot and didn't really cool down. I figured it was about time to change out the thermostat - I thought maybe it was sticking.

I pulled out the old one and found a wire poking out behind it from the engine block about the width of a clothes hanger and maybe 8 inches long. What the???!!! I pull it out and there are a couple more that are sitting in there along the length of the block. Using longnosed pliers, I pulled 2 more out, and these 2 were about 10-12 inches long. One of them was rusting pretty good, the others were still fairly intact. If someone told me they were part of a clothes hanger, I would've believed them - they looked that much like a clothes hanger wire.

Does anyone have ANY idea what these are? They're not part of the radiator, are they? I had the motor rebuilt maybe 6 years ago - it came back mostly preassembled from the machine shop. Could they somehow have been from that??

Thanks,

John

 

[2 Darts]

This is one of the weirdest finds I've ever made in my car...

So I've been having some temperature issues with my 71 Scamp's slant-6. It started running up pretty hot in traffic and then would cool back down if I started moving again. More recently it just ran hot and didn't really cool down. I figured it was about time to change out the thermostat - I thought maybe it was sticking.

I pulled out the old one and found a wire poking out behind it from the engine block about the width of a clothes hanger and maybe 8 inches long. What the???!!! I pull it out and there are a couple more that are sitting in there along the length of the block. Using longnosed pliers, I pulled 2 more out, and these 2 were about 10-12 inches long. One of them was rusting pretty good, the others were still fairly intact. If someone told me they were part of a clothes hanger, I would've believed them - they looked that much like a clothes hanger wire.

Does anyone have ANY idea what these are? They're not part of the radiator, are they? I had the motor rebuilt maybe 6 years ago - it came back mostly preassembled from the machine shop. Could they somehow have been from that??

Thanks,

John

The only thing in the engine cooling system that remotely resembles that is the spring that is found in lower radiator hoses. If your lower hose does not have a spring in it to keep it open, that could well be the cause of your overheating as it may be getting sucked closed by the water pump. How the spring could have made it into the block is beyond me. Keep us posted. This is a strange one for sure.

 

[Mark Nixon]

Those wires are likely part of the structure used to form the sand casting for the head.
Most foundries use a wire form encased in casting sand to make a part and it stays inside the part, but sometimes corrosion causes them to work loose.

In your case it sounds like they have migrated, as well.

Mark.

 

[Grinder]

Those wires are likely part of the structure used to form the sand casting for the head.
Most foundries use a wire form encased in casting sand to make a part and it stays inside the part, but sometimes corrosion causes them to work loose.

In your case it sounds like they have migrated, as well.

Mark.

Bingo.I once ported a slant head and found FOUR of them in there.

 

[FrozenCaveman]

That's wild! Great info, thanks guys! I assume then that there's not really any harm in them being there so long as the pieces don't migrate into the thermostat and cause it to jam open. It doesn't seem like they would do much to the flow of water, but then I'm not into thermodynamics.

-JP