[Vwdiesel] adventures in engine pulling

[James Hansen]

>> Unless any of you think that there is a chance the block could be
>> welded, but I doubt it really could, cast is a pain to weld to begin
>> with, add in an oil and coolant saturated and it gets even worse. in
>> the mean time, anyone know a good shop that can check my current head
>> to see if it's salvageable.


Welllll, it can be welded if it is just a frost break that is ONLY 
involving the external water jacket.  It does get kinda involved, but 
can certainly be done if absolutely necessary.  However, there are still 
lots of good blocks out there, so it hardly pays for the effort.  With 
proper prep, welding around the oil and coolant are not an issue.    It 
really depends if it is only an external crack, or goes inside.   If 
it's inside, the efforts get pretty heroic to salvage, and involve 
machining to finish up, which gets costly.  Easier to get Loren to chop 
one out of a billet with that fancy mill.
;-)
-James