Is my case cracked?

[preston_brown]

Am I imagining what I think am seeing? Please say yes.

Or tell me it is easily fixable.

[911pcars]

It looks like a crack, but that's from an internet photo. Was the car or engine in a previous collision?

Why is the engine removed? Since the engine is out and your plans are to go no further than necessary, I'd try to repair it with tig-weld. Is there any oil to compromise the weld?

If the engine is coming apart, I'd do the same.

Sherwood

[dtw]

Just looks like casting marks to me.

[tt_targa]

It looks to me like it could be a flow line which is a casting imperfection.

Cracks should start from an edge or hole. This is why I thing it is a casting imperfection.

Is there a problem like an oil leak?

It doesn't look like a problem to me.

[preston_brown]

The engine is being torn down for separate reasons. 150k 3.2L carrera motor, valve guides were leaking and there were other oil leaks from the pressure switch and/or/breathers and/or other stuff in that area.

Decided to do a full top-end job, that's why heads and cylinders are removed.

I just noticed these lines when I was cleaning up the rest of the case and removing the cylinders for ring inspection tonight. No oil appeared to be coming from these two spots.

[911pcars]

Ask your machine shop to inspect to confirm either way. If there's a question, there are dye penetrant solutions to detect surface cracks.

http://www.vobaker.com/ndt/zguide.htm

Sherwood

[Howard Taylor]

Perform a liquid penetrant examination (PT) on those indications.
This test should tell you if you have a crack.
You can buy the dye, cleaner and developer at any good welding supply.

[rnln]

doesn't look like crack and also it looks so clean. If it's cracked, shouldn't oil leaked already?

[Jeff Alton]

Casting imperfections are common. Take some fine grit sand paper and see if you can elimintate the line.....

Get a can of crack testing penetrant and give it a test, after you see how deep it is with your sandpaper.

cheers

[preston_brown]

Jeff,

Sounds like a good thing to try first. I wasn't planning on tearing into the shortblock, so this is way preferable to magnafluxing or anything else of that nature that would require a machine shop.

I was thinking it was probably a casting imperfection, but want to be sure.

[Zef]

Dye penetrant it for confirmation...!

[john walker's workshop]

pretty much all the cases have that, trans cases too.

[preston_brown]

As many thought, it was a case casting mark, not a real crack. I used MagnaFlux penetrating dye to test.

Thanks for the input.

Here they are after applying "Penetrant". You do this after using the Cleaner spray (like Brake Cleaner) to make everything dirt-free.



Then you wait 30 minutes, then clean it off again with cleaner spray.




Then, you apply "Developer." This is basically solvent mixed with powder; the powder sticks anywhere and shows dye if it was not removed by the cleaner (i.e. it had crept into a crack). As you can see, there is no "red streak" where a crack would be.



Here are the cans. You can get all three for under $20.

[911pcars]

<$20 for piece of mind. Good move.

Thanks for sharing.

There's a thread about a newly developed faux Fuchs and some discussion whether they're going to be strong enough. Maybe someone over there will make you an offer for the left over crack test kit.

Sherwood

[Wayne 962]

Wow, that first photo looks like the remains from a Tarantino film.

-Wayne