Cracked block check

[rturbett]

Is there a way to find out if the block is cracked before putting the heads back on?

I don't mean to sound too stupid, but I am replacing the head gaskets because of pressure/ overflow from the radiator resivoir. ( classic symptom and diagnosis)

After getting the gaskets off, there was no obvious break, although the manifold gasket did show "darkening" acoss one area that I would have expected it to be clean.

The heads are getting planed now, and pressure tested. So back to my question- Is there anything simple I could do to see if the block has any issues before i put the whole thing back together? Or do I put it back together and hope for the best?

Thanks,
Rob

[Elemental]

Take the block to a machine shop to have it pressure tested.

Be advsied, to do that you have to take everything out of the block.

[rturbett]

hmmmm. That would be stretching my capabilities to the limit. I'll probably just cross my fingers and torque my nuts!

Anything easier? Or givin the facts would you definitely do it.?

Rob

[57loboy]

The weak points are usually the heads/head gaskets. If you had no other issues, I'd just button it back up and go from there. As long as the cam and lifters look good, (now's the time to check - nice shiny lobes, no excessive wear in each of the lifters) and there's no sludge buildup in the valley, you should be fine. I did just that with mine. That said, I did pull mine to do the heads long before it overheated/blew out anything. I noticed weeping AF at the LF and just went and did it.