I'm a total novice I've had an A all of 4 days now so I'm looking for some advice.
I looked this car over 4 years ago, I don’t remember the crack then but perhaps the paint was hiding it. The car was driven very little in the last 4 years and always had antifreeze so I highly doubt freezing caused the crack recently. I just acquired the car and hauled it home so it’s my problem now. I let it sit 3 days and collected the first cup of oil during an oil change. I don’t see any coolant in the oil but it smells like gas, I suppose that’s normalish?
As I understand it I have 5 options now and lots of questions.
- Have the block welded. I’ve read this requires all machined surfaces being redone and then the motor rebuilt. Probably costs more than a new motor or block.
- Get a new motor of some kind. This one supposedly has upgrades like; balanced crank, insert bearings, oil filter, high compression head. Replacement cost will probably exceed the cars value.
- Braze the crack. I have a feeling the block was possibly brazed in the past and the crack has reemerged. I need to grind off the paint to confirm that though.
- Lock-N-Stitch the block. This looks real neat, does anyone know if it can be done on curved surfaces or only flat? My crack seems to go down through a curve. Can this be done in the car? Then flush the coolant after or add a screen before the water pump.
- Grind and fill with JB weld. Has anyone had success on such a long crack?
- Keep driving it as is. Do these cracks generally grow until they are fatal or stay about the same size?
I am tempted to just drive it until something fatal happens then find a new motor? If the damage is already done and a new motor is in my future why not drive it into the ground first. Maybe this is a bad idea for some reason unknown to me. Which is why I’m asking your experts.
Thanks for any input.