shop fire

saturday morning april 27th my damn shop burnt to the ground. My boss 572 motor was in there along with a lot of other stuff. This was a brand new engine with a460x block. Has anyone here ever used a block thats been in a fire? Obviously it would need crack checked, line honed, and all that i guess

Damn that sucks sorry to hear that!!

Sorry to hear that.

Did the pistons melt on the top or the bottom?

I doubt you have had time to check yet but, that may give you an idea of how hot it got.

I would be worried about the hardness of the block.

wow sorry to hear about that,really sucks!if the engine was close to the fuel source,ie wood or painted structure,it may have got pretty hot.did it have valve covers on it?was it painted?did the roof or walls collapse on it?hopefully its ok and not destroyed.insurance cover items in shop?

If it's the pic I saw on FB, it looks like it got pretty hot. The engine stand block arms got hot enough to let the engine droop all the way down.

I have used a few that were in fires, 2 melted the rockers off, blocks were fine, heads were fine, crank rods pistons were used over

threw away springs retaniers etc, intake lived, valve covers were gone,lol

the others were not as bad , still threw away valve train, and all the rings of course

i tore that 572 down the other day, the caps dont fit the registers tight anymore, the bearings had no crush, pretty much scrap. the pistons might possibly be useable if i can get em off the rods without damage, but the one i did take off seemed like the pin bore was no longer in line side to side. thninking i'll just start from scratch, crank was also blue plum up into the journals.

I wouldnt worry about the block structurally speaking. Cast iton dorsnt have a temper. If the caps are loose, a good machinist can weld new material to the register and re machine new registers. Or it is very likely new caps would tighten it back up.

Think about it. Cast iron is used in steam boilers and furnaces for that very reason.

but at what point do you draw the line on cost of machine work versus a new block. I think I'm just gonna go ahead and figure on a new block and everything else

stanger68 wrote:I wouldnt worry about the block structurally speaking. Cast iton dorsnt have a temper. If the caps are loose, a good machinist can weld new material to the register and re machine new registers. Or it is very likely new caps would tighten it back up.

Think about it. Cast iron is used in steam boilers and furnaces for that very reason.

The caps are either steel or ductile iron so, you can spread them apart a few thou without hurting their structure ... a line hone will be necessary.