65 hardtop

[Esteban]

If the water is drained, you shouldn't have to worry about it during the winter.

I don't think they were prone to cracks or that any member has reported it before. But water frozen inside doesn't discriminate any brand.

If you have some steam coming out, it could be remnants of water inside that are evaporating under the heat. Very normal with an empty engine that will never dry out completely in short spans of time that you've been dealing with.

[Johnny Roadkill]

Has anyone had a cracked head or block before? Just curious If these motors are prone to that.

The P ( not a P40 ) motor in my G61 had a cracked block, that's why the previous owner ( Eddy ) parked it. If he's still on this forum he might be able to give you more info on how it happened, Swerve traded him a replacement motor and may have some insight also...

cheers,
D

[RiverPatrol]

The P engine certainly isn't prone to cracked blocks or heads. I think I can only recall hearing of one, maybe two heads that were cracked, never a block though - other than Eddy's.

[mattmctree@gmail.com]

So I had a bit of time to work on the truck and I decided to drain the oil and pull the oil pan off to have a look.
I drained the oil ( had to heat up the drain plug a bit with a torch to get it to budge). The oil is nice and black and the filter not too dirty the pan itself is in solid condition but needs some paint on the outside. Were these two piece pans that were welded as I noticed a weld all the way around the sump? I'm assuming it the original pan as the gasket was cork and quite dried and crusty

[mattmctree@gmail.com]

I crawled underneath to have a look and everything looked clean and no debris was found in the oil when I strained it. The oil pump screen was spotless however I noticed a hole in the block by the top of the oil pump. Not sure if it was a bad casting as I don't see how it would ever break. I put a wire in it and it appears to go into the oil pump filter area. I'm wondering if this is repairable as I don't want to loose oil pressure from having it pump into the oil pan instead of through the oil galleries. Has anyone else seen anything like this. I also noticed that one of the counter weights had holes drilled in it I'm assuming for balance? Has someone buggered with this ? Another issue I noticed was some notches in another counter weight. . I was really hoping to keep the truck original I hope it's not a scrap now. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

[50car]

Drilled counter balances are absolutely original and correct. The punched out hole into the oil filter is also normal.

[mattmctree@gmail.com]

What is the purpose of the punched out hole by the oil filter In th block? I wonder why it look like it was punched out after being casted and not drilled. I was worried that the block was scrap!

[Esteban]

You've raised a good question here. I've been trying to locate some pictures of the outside of the engine block, where the oil filter base attaches, to see if something makes sense. I only have pictures of the oil filter base, and certainly nothing makes sense as to the presence of that whole in the casting.

I've rebuilt myself 4 of these engines in the past, and that never draw my attention. No wonder my wife thinks I'm a bad observer!

I wish some other member could have pictures of their engine blocks when they were dismantled. Anyways, you should not worry about it.

[mattmctree@gmail.com]

I was worried that the oil would bypass back into the sump. If anyone has pictures of the same spot on their block I like to see it. I'm gonna or up a new pan gasket an put it all back together

[50car]

Here are a couple of pictures from a spare block that i took to show that the hole is normal for you..

block hole close up.jpg

block hole.jpg