First of all, I mostly stick to a "fix it right or don't fix it at all" philosophy but different situations require exceptions I suppose. I have a new customer with an older Cat 926 wheel loader with a 3204 engine. He has to put a head gasket in it every couple years because there's a .005" dip/groove/imperfection of some sort in the block. Normally I would say, "ok, lets pull it out, take it to a machine shop and deck the block." However, the machine is old, its only used to empty the trash and minimal other odd-jobs, its ran for usually a maximum of 5 or 6 minutes a day. Honestly we could almost fill the water jackets solid and never have an issue. So my question is, does anyone know of, heard of, or performed some type of repair that can be done on the machine? I've thought about just welding it up and filing it back down with one of those great big files but I cringe to think about actually doing it. All ideas will be considered! haha
At point of repair does it leak oil, water or compression, compression being the worst? Have repaired some water leaks with epoxy or stop leak that worked, but it is still a gamble.
clean it good and use bellzona and follow the instructions. its good stuf
You may be able to 'lead' the area although it could be tricky. If you can clean the surface real good, take some blue Dykem and mist it over the entire cleaned surface, and then take a large flat file and scrape the surface to reveal the low spot(s), you may be able to locate the area(s) that need to be raised. You may need to do the same with the head, as well. If you can heat the area and flow some lead on to it you may be able to raise the low spots. Use the same 'flat file' technique to bing the lead even with the iron. I say "may" a lot because this is just a WAG. The low spot(s) will be missed by the file and so you will be able to visually tell the difference with the Dykem applied. If you do this, you'll want the surface free from any oils and/or dirt so the Dykem can penetrate into the surface pores of the iron. Don't put it on too thick, less is better in this case. If the low area is at or adjacent to the cylinder hole lead won't work. it will just melt away. And if you're really energetic, you could keep flat filing until you get the entire surface flat. It may take a while, but at least you'll end up with 'Popeye' arms...
Thanks guys, I did read a couple articles about that Bellzona stuff. I'll probably try that. It's leaking compression into the coolant so it sounds like "leading" might just get burnt away. But I don't have it torn down yet so I'll survey it when I get there. Thanks again.
FWIW Cat recommend a Belzona repair in certain circumstances (I think it depends on the amount of damage on the top surface) although it makes me cringe every time I think about it. I'll see if I can find it and let you know.
cat has a 2 part epoxy for repairing blocks never used it but i have been told it holds up well
I think Belzona is the 2 part epoxy that cat has. I found out today my local dealer has it available. I've never heard of this stuff before but from what I'm hearing its pretty amazing stuff.
works good. we always just called it cat epoxy. use it to fix where the liner orings come in contact with block