az1966

1966 mustang ,,,200ci engine cali smog, 3 spd tranny, no ac ,,,issue is that my engine needs rebuilding and when I pulled the head to have it rebuilt,, me and a friend noticed a "hair line crack" in the #1 cylinder and the compression checks done before indicated something was wrong,,, and losing water/antifreeze

question is can a good shop "fix" this during a rebuild or do I need another block,, and if so where can I find the "born on dates" to pre find one to cover the bases

thanks for any help info

Stangman70

Your best bet is to find another block. If your # 1 cylinder has a crack the likely hood of having a shop fix it correctly, and cost effectively, are slim. Finding a block may take some time, but not impossible. Inline 6's aren't as plenty as they used to be but, your local junk yard may hold something special.

Gary H

They should be able to sleeve it. It's not that expensive. Call a few machine shops and ask.

my77stang

yeah, sleeving can fix the block pretty easily - of course you'll be needing to bore the cylinders after that and get new oversized pistons. The reason is that when they press the sleeve into the cracked cylinder it will distort the cylinder next to it which requires that cylinder to be honed. once they do that your left with a cylinder that is out of spec, so boring it out is the way to go.

this may be a good opportunity to upgrade to a 250 and pick up a little power.

az1966

I want to keep the block within the cars manufacturing date, and not to hot on over boring if I can help it,,I had heard there's manufacturing dates on the block, and as I said want to try to keep as original as possible

Gary H

Odds are that if the engine has never been rebuilt then it will need to be bored out anyway.