http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gta...cer1/my_photos

Nice little crack across the head bolt and to the water passage.
Above number 3 cylinder.

Can it be fixed? I'd hate to lose my money on this one. The 642 heads and 4 barrel intake that came with it aren't much consolation.

Guess it depends on how much u have in the engine.

It can be welded. Then it's got to be smoothed back out, and normally the block is decked.

I'd get the quote on the work, and if it's more than it would cost u to find another good 400, I'd keep if for the crank.

Every GOOD 400 I've scored comes out of a running vehicle...

Alot of trucks and vans have 'em and alot guys won't look at van motors cause they are such a pain to get out at the junkyard....

Old Taxi's, Impala's, Station wagons alot had 400's.

I'd run it to a machine shop to check with them, but it doesn't look good.

Looks like it will interfere with the head gasket sealing, and the crack in the water passage - also a bad thing...

But you never know.....

It's a pretty common SBC problem actually, and not just 400s.

The usual cure is to drill it out and put a steel pipe plug in it, and drill & tap the plug. Then deck the block.

Some people will actually do that to all the coolant holes to strengthen the deck.

Consider this as your golden opportunity to lose the 624s. It's a blessing in disguise.

RB83L69 is correct about drilling it out etc. My machinist friend calls it "stitching."

That's good news, thanks!

Bad news...

Machine shop said chunk it...Not worth fixing, not unless it is some rare motor.

Hopefully the crank is still good for a 383.

Sounds like you need to find a new machine shop, that's not going to try to get you to gift them your 400 block so they can keep it for their own race car or whatever.

I agree...find another shop.