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308 Mystery Pieces
  • TwinHTwinH
    Posts: 547Platinum Member
    Machine work done and just chasing threads before a final soap/water/air hose bath and I found these wires in the coolant passages. This is my plan'B' engine that came with my 49 C8 as a spare and now have rebuilt instead of the 60 over,30/30 crank engine that broke last spring. The plan 'B' engine is a 55 that had a new rotating
    assembly.Crank,rods,and,pistons were all new, never run,BUT had a used cam/hydraulic
    lifters and valves that had been reground till almost no margin left.

    Anyway,while eyballing it I spied a wire in the coolant passage where the water manifold slides into the block. I pulled the first one out and then saw another.I fished it out too. Then I looked through the holes in the deck and saw another one
    clear in the back.I liked to never get that one out.They are all three the same
    .076 steel wire bent in a way that nests nicely around the bottom of the cylinders
    inside the coolant passages. The only thing I can even guess is that they might have
    held casting cores in position when they cast the block. Has anybody ever seen these
    before?

    017-7.jpg
  • Ol racerOl racer
    Posts: 1,688Platinum Member
    FYI

    Ive seen wires in the water passage too and told back then blocks were cast in that manner....
  • Hudson308Hudson308
    Posts: 1,405Platinum Member
    Yup... fished a few of those out of the blocks I've cleaned. Most of the pieces I've found have been shorter, though. I believe they help hold the cores in place during the block casting process, as you mentioned.
    Workin Stiff