Is this head repairable?
 

In my world, this head is garbage. I was just wondering if some new techniques had been developed for welding cast iron to salvage this.

These WERE a rather nice pair of Merlin 269cc oval port heads. The other head is fine, this one.....well,....what do you think?

Anyone have a single Merlin head?

Marine epoxy will fix anything!

:D :D :D

Dennis, you crack my up. No pun intended.

I really don't expect to fix this, but being a good set of Merlins, I just wanted to check before buying another head.

Thanks for the laugh.

PS..Love your book BBC marine perf.

you think duct tape would hold?

I'd say time to write a check for a new one. Not worth the chance of repair going bad.

OK, that's what I thought.

I have a call in to a Merlin dealer. I think these are older castings.

Thanks,

I'd write the check for a new one. They can fix them though. They first drill the end of the crack and then open it up. Next the head (or block) is heateduntil it is cherry red. They then spray molten metal at the crack building it back up. The "weld" looks different from standard welding but is supposed to be stronger than the base metal.

Anyone have a good number for World Castings? I have 2 numbers off a pdf brochure that aren't any good. I need to talk with them about the differences in the older castings.

Their website revealed nothing but a email submission form which has not netted any results since last Friday.

I know some companies don't check their email everyday like some of us with computers almost sewn into our clothing.:D

Broken ring? Hard to believe the spark plug is still in one piece. Sorry no number.

No broken ring, it was part of the intake valve from cylinder #8 that made it's way into cylinder #7 across the hallway.

Spark plug was new. Old ones looked a little beat up. I was in the process of tuning this up for a customer when I discovered a small problem.:eek:

I cannot believe he didn't notice something was really wrong when he boated last. Maybe too much giggle juice.:D

How in the world did a piece of intake valve go from one cylinder to another?
I'd like to see the piston and cylinder on that one.

Try Bill Mitchell (Hardcore) they are a world/merlin dealer. Good to work with.

Oh, yea they are at www.TheEngineshop.com

Thanks dlbCheckmate.

Hey Iggy, I was pretty suprised too! Here is chamber #8 where the piece of valve came from.

Here is piston #8. It really didn't take too much abuse.

Here is piston #7. Notice ventalation at 12:00

Here is piston #5. Apparently the piece spent some time here as well.

Here is the offending piece of intake valve.

Man, that is one crusty looking engine! From the looks of all the pitting in the combustion chamber, he must have been getting water in that engine from somewhere. Looks like the busted valve was not the beginning of his troubles.


Good luck with it.

If you notice the hole in the head, you will see where the water was coming from. He let this motor sit for a couple of weeks before calling me. This motor had about 5 gallons of salt water in it. All of that was pumped through that hole in the port head. Salt water will do amazing things to cast iron in a short amount of time.

That chamber is not that pitted, it just looks that way in the pic.

Wow, those pic's belong in the un-censored section!

So that piece of valve went from #8 across to #5, and then on to #7? :eek: Sounds like a good one for "stupid engine tricks"! I've seen old school bus engines in the graveyard that looked better! Jim, looks like you have your work cut out for you. Good luck in the head search!

Well, the good thing is the guy picked up his boat and took it home. He did not want to spend the kind of money I told him it would take to fix this problem. I wouldn't do a half ass job for him. When I do something for someone, it's the whole ass or nothing. :D

He left me with the heads. One of them is still a good casting although it looks rough. All of the rust in just on the surface. Nothing a good cleaning couldn't take care of. I am just trying to figure out if I can make this a pair of heads.

Thanks for all the feedback.

Aluminum heads are repairable but won't withstand salt.
Cast Iron heads are generally NOT repairable in a heat zone.

That leaves boat guys kind of out in the cold, unless you go to closed cooling. Hmm...

I have an old single merlin head, but it has rectangular intake ports...
Same deal, broke one and the other is priceless.. to say the least.

Brings new meaning to the term "priceless".:D

I'm still trying to figure out how it went from cylinder to cylinder. And now you say it possibly crossed sides too?
That's one for "Ripley's, Believe It Or Not!".

Is it possible somebody didn't like him and dumped debris down the carb?
I had that happen, only it was sand into the oil pan.

Not too hard to visualize if you consider all the forces involved at higher RPM and a open plenum intake.

I wouldn't have believed it myself except for finding the piece of valve in cylinder#7 that could only have come from #8.

More than likely the Intake valve that broke on #8 broke into two pieces, one going into #5 and one going into #7 but it is still possible it was one piece since the #7 cycle is right after the #5 cycle. At least that's how I would have hallucinated it.:D

Loose pieces will go where ever there is a nice healthy vacuum being pulled. Unfortunately, I have several examples of this. Luckily I run aluminum heads.

BT :cool:

Yea, at least with aluminum you can repair them.