Drilled Hole into Engine Block

[ibnxe]

I found this forum tonight and this was the first thread I read. Sorry for the poster’s dilemma. Over the years, I have drilled out a number of freeze plugs, and so far have had good luck.
There are some interesting suggestions so far
If this were my problem, I think I would start by measuring the distance from the hole, up to the head gasket surface. This would be to see if the hole was far enough up the bore to be a problem with the ring sealing. One would need to know the stroke of the engine to know how far down the bore the piston travels.
It is possible that the drill went through the piston as well as the block. Turning the engine a few degrees and probing the hole again could check this. If the wire now strikes the side of the piston, instead of the cylinder’s far wall, this would be the case. This wouldn’t be a big deal, if there is a hole in the lower part of the piston skirt. If the hole were in the ring land area, the piston would need to be replaced.
Another thing to check would be to remove the injector and shine a bright light source down the hole. Turn the engine so that the piston is at bottom dead center and look for the light at the hole.
If the light only shone out the hole with the piston in the bottom third of the stroke, the hole could be plugged and possibly work just fine.
I have used JB weld for a number of engine related repairs, including cracked heads. It is some amazing stuff. Again, if this was my repair, and the hole was low in the bore, I would dab on the JB weld and see what happens. If the hole were farther up the bore, I would remove the head and pan, and take out the piston. Press in a metal plug, trim it off flush with the bore, hone the cylinder and put it back together.

 

[Milo Holroyd]

Progress?? Final outcome?

Milo

 

[dejohnson88]

Here's what I did to fix the problem. A friend of mine who is a diesel mechanic helped me turn the engine by hand. We could see the bottom of the piston skirt come down and when it bottomed out the bottom piston ring (wiper) was right at the hole. We never saw the top of the ring. We measured the thickness of the cylinder wall and it was 1/4". So we threaded the hole and screwed in a bolt that was just under 1/4" long. We used high-temp Loktite. Then we cleaned the area around the bolt head with alcohol on a cotton swab and put a blob of JB Weld over and around the bolt head and pressed it firmly against the engine block. The next day I put the block heater in. I check the engine oil carefully before and during use and so far have seen no sign of antifreeze in the oil. I intend to keep this tractor forever and it will probably take a long, long time before I am not nervous running it. In a month or two I plan to pull the block heater and see if the patch still looks the same. If anything changes I will post a new report. Thanks for all the great posts I got on this problem. They really helped me come up with a plan. We'll see how it does. Again, thanks.

 

[Milo Holroyd]

Thanks for the follow-up. Sounds like ya done good!

Milo

 

[traildust]

Here's what I did to fix the problem. A friend of mine who is a diesel mechanic helped me turn the engine by hand. We could see the bottom of the piston skirt come down and when it bottomed out the bottom piston ring (wiper) was right at the hole. We never saw the top of the ring. We measured the thickness of the cylinder wall and it was 1/4". So we threaded the hole and screwed in a bolt that was just under 1/4" long. We used high-temp Loktite. Then we cleaned the area around the bolt head with alcohol on a cotton swab and put a blob of JB Weld over and around the bolt head and pressed it firmly against the engine block. The next day I put the block heater in. I check the engine oil carefully before and during use and so far have seen no sign of antifreeze in the oil. I intend to keep this tractor forever and it will probably take a long, long time before I am not nervous running it. In a month or two I plan to pull the block heater and see if the patch still looks the same. If anything changes I will post a new report. Thanks for all the great posts I got on this problem. They really helped me come up with a plan. We'll see how it does. Again, thanks.

Now that's what ya call getting by on a wing and a prayer!
If I'm not mistaken that repair is only going to be exposed to crank case pressure and somewhat high temps.

I think you will be ok and when you pull the heater it will be there happily waiting for you. Then you can give a big sigh of relief and grab a nice cold one

Scott

 

[handyman]

I agree with traildust sounds like you got it. Thanks for letting us know.If you do have trouble let us know and I will give you something to try but sounds like you got it.handy

 

[doubleh]

This has been very interesting. I totally agreed with Handyman's advise about welding cast iron. I have as many years welding experience as he does and my thoughts about welding or brazing cast iron are the same as his.

dejohnson88, your repair just might work. I have seen hi-temp loctite used to repair some things with a lot more stress on them than your situation. JB weld is pretty good too. Ask me me to tell you about a full propane tank a couple of
brothers-in-law repaired with it sometime.