Greetings,

I'm new to the board here. I just bought an 84 Z28 and I am currently building a 383 for it. The car doesn't have an engine or transmission and I've found a bare 4 bolt main 350 for it. So here's my question. The block I found has two holes in the wall of the casting just above the timing chain cover. They are not in the oil gallery but rather in the lifter valley. Both holes are about 1/2" in size. Does anyone know if these could be successfully welded closed? Any help would be appreciated.

 

Quality block welding is expensive. If it was something exotic it might be worth it, but for a 350, I'd just look for another block.

 

ZZ28ZZ is right. the block is probably out of a truck and if it is, it is just a plain run of the mill 350 block not worth fixing up. even if it was some rare casting it still probably wouldn't be worth fixing it. the only time it would make sense to repair an sbc block would be for a numbers matching muscle car.

 

I think you guys are right. I'm just going to find another block.

 

Ok, hold up a minute. Are we talking about cracked, "holes", or normal holes, drilled in ? Who drilled these, and why? The two holes between the lifter valley into the timing chain area are normal. What are these for?
If they are just into the lifter valley, then there's really no pressure there. Heck, JB weld would cover that stuff (if these are unintentional holes with no current purpose).
If you've got machine work in this block, i'd JB weld it. If it's bare, stripped and at stage 0 of work, then maybe look elsewhere - but i'd want to know why those holes are there in the first place.

A picture says a thousand words.

 

leave them alone...

1 there should be 2 holes.... one on either side of the block
2 if they were put there after and they only enter the timing chain area and the lifter valley they wont hurt anything...

 

These hole are not the timing chain oil holes. They were drilled and tapped above the timing chain cover just below the front seal of the intake. I have no idea what they were there for. Anyway, I bought a different block today.

 

If they are just drilled thru the front china wall above the timing cover, whats the problem. May have been used for a turbo oil drain back.

 

If they were tapped just plug them.