Block chipped at manifold

[petermarcus]

'93 Mercruiser 3.0L/181

In the process of overhauling the engine. I was attaching a new manifold, and as I was turning one of the bolts, the block gave way at the bolt hole and chipped out a small chunk of the block (see pic).

The chipped area is a bit away from the block/manifold opening, so what does everyone think? Put the gasket back on and find a longer bolt? Or is it bad enough that it's going to leak?

Thanks in advance...

 

[Juniinc]

Re: Block chipped at manifold

form a gasket should take care of that.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: Block chipped at manifold

I'd probably build the area up with JB weld or similar and use a longer bolt, or a stud and nut.
With a stud, you could JB-epoxy the stud into the the threads to make it stronger, understanding that the stud will not be removable afterwards.

 

[petermarcus]

Re: Block chipped at manifold

Thanks guys. I'll look into the JB weld with the stud -- I like that idea.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: Block chipped at manifold

if the threads are damaged helicoil.... I wouldn't bother putting ANY kind of filler in there... you still have plenty of gasket surface.... I would worry about why it pulled out in the first place... ie cross threaded or more likely too short of a bolt.... Down side of a stud is that removing a manifold will require pulling the engine in many boats.

 

[bomar76]

Re: Block chipped at manifold

Time serts.

Way better than helicoils.

http://www.timesert.com/

 

[petermarcus]

Re: Block chipped at manifold

It was too short of a bolt. The original manifold was a chunk of rust (project boat, sat under a tree in a backyard for years before I took it off their hands, had a small sapling growing out of the bilge, familiar story...). The new manifold had, of course, gone through a couple new versions since '93. The new version is a little fatter than the old, and I thought the bolt was a little short, but figured the gasket would compress a bit... but nope. Barely leaned on the torque wrench and it pulled up the top couple threads in a chunk.

The engine is already pulled right now, I took it down to the block and built it back up again, the water pump and pulleys were rusted to the block (inside the block was almost sterile it was so clean -- go figure). I put in the JB Weld this afternoon just to lock the new stud in instead of the bolt. I probably won't work too hard to make it mirror-smooth, there is a good gasket surface like smoke said. I just want to make sure it pulls the corner of the manifold tight to the block.