[68 TT]

Originally Posted by Slick67

I gotta have it painted before I put it all back together and hopefully it won't have to be pulled back apart!!

I have weld repaired a few cracked / damaged blocks, cylinder heads and rear end center sections. It is hit & miss on whether the part will develop a new crack adjacent to the welded area. It all depends upon why the crack was there in the first place. If it was metal fatigue from repeated stress it is more likely to crack again but if it was an impact crack from being dropped or hit in an accident it is less likely to crack again.

We don't know why your block cracked where it did and I am afraid it may develop a new crack in or near the repair area.

I know it is a pain but I think it is worth it to drop the engine in the truck, run it up to temp and let it cool down at least four times before you put the effort into painting it again. You really need to heat cycle that repair a few times to make sure they got it all fixed and that what they did to fix it is going to hold.

I would be inclined to strip off the paint in the repair area to see what is under it and so you could see if the oil is still making its way out the repair area sooner during the heat cycle process. You need to do this part anyway as prep for the new paint so all you are really out is a little time in stabbing the engine in and pulling it back out.

Our trucks are pretty simple so it shouldn't take you more than an hour to do the install and then the removal after the test run heat cycle process on the repair.

You can leave the hood off and run it on straight water to make things easier and reduce the work & possibility of paint damage to the truck.

I know the time, effort and money that will need to go into prepping and painting the block again. I don't want to see you have to go through that a third time if the block repair doesn't hold.