Hey check this block out..

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yellow1995Cobra

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Mar 2, 2004

#1

• Mar 2, 2004

• #1

This is my friends 88 mustang, look at his block.. What you guys thing caused this? Ive never seen anything like it..

 

89 blue lx

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#2

• Mar 2, 2004

• #2

its on both sides too that is really wierd

 

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yellow1995Cobra

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#3

• Mar 2, 2004

• #3

Yea, i wonder if/when he puts a power adder on this, if that will be the first spot the block cracks...

 

2L8ULUZ2

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#4

• Mar 2, 2004

• #4

That is not really a high stress area. So I guess that they either overtightened the bellhousing bolts to a serious extent but that does not seem likely because the aluminum would have cracked before the iron block. So I guess they let it fall off something is about my best guess.

 

Rootus

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#5

• Mar 2, 2004

• #5

Maybe crud in the holes + over-tightening?

Dave

 

stang_gt_1994

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Mar 2, 2004

#6

• Mar 2, 2004

• #6

You can't over tighten with a a stock bellhousing, it would crack first, like 2l8 said.

 

Rootus

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#7

• Mar 2, 2004

• #7

stang_gt_1994 said:

You can't over tighten with a a stock bellhousing, it would crack first, like 2l8 said.

Click to expand...

You could if there was enough crap in the holes.

Dave

 

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unclejackrock

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Mar 4, 2003

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Glasgow,Ky

Mar 3, 2004

#8

• Mar 3, 2004

• #8

HairyCanary said:

You could if there was enough crap in the holes.

Dave

Click to expand...

TRUE.....

 

S

shatner saves

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Jan 13, 2004

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Mar 3, 2004

#9

• Mar 3, 2004

• #9

Bad casting
fatigue failure
wrong bolts
overtightened

Has the tranny ever been dropped in this car? If it's an '88, I'd think it would be on it's second or third clutch by now.

 

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yellow1995Cobra

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Mar 3, 2004

#10

• Mar 3, 2004

• #10

The tranny has been dropped a # of times due to issues. It just got replaced last season. I never did notice the cracks before that, then again we never really did anything to his car back then.

 

Killercanary

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#11

• Mar 3, 2004

• #11

Hmmm... that's interesting. I've never seen cracks like that before.

 

94Blue302GT

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Oct 20, 2003

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Mar 3, 2004

#12

• Mar 3, 2004

• #12

could someone explain what cracks you're looking at, i don't see any, and although my glasses ARE awefully strong, i don't get what you're looking at

 

95snoozer

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Dec 14, 2002

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#13

• Mar 3, 2004

• #13

overtightening and sidestepping the clutch alot

 

3

331 cobra

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Mar 3, 2004

#14

• Mar 3, 2004

• #14

I think this might be a case of undertightening. Instead of a constant pull of a properly torqued bolt, each agressive shift puts a momentary stress on the bolts, creating a highly cyclic load, accelerating metal fatigue.

It's like the torque specs for a connecting rod bolt, the number of ft-lbs has nothing to do with keeping the bolt tight, it preloads the bolt so that the load created in opperation does not reverse from tension to compression on every stroke.

Even if I'm right about undertightening, I still don't understand why the bellhousing isn't beaten up also.

 

rickmazurek

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colorado

Mar 3, 2004

#15

• Mar 3, 2004

• #15

You can't over tighten with a a stock bellhousing, it would crack first, like 2l8 said

Click to expand...

Not entirely true, I did something similar to this on my old block, cracked a little chunk off from over tightening and didnt hurt the bell housing at all. I had a couple shops look at it and they all said that it was probabily just bad casting and/or fatigue. By the way, the holes were completely clean, I always clean everything up before I put it back together.

 

stang_gt_1994

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#16

• Mar 3, 2004

• #16

rickmazurek said:

Not entirely true, I did something similar to this on my old block, cracked a little chunk off from over tightening and didnt hurt the bell housing at all. I had a couple shops look at it and they all said that it was probabily just bad casting and/or fatigue. By the way, the holes were completely clean, I always clean everything up before I put it back together.

Click to expand...

How would you define clean. You tap each bolt hole out when you take each bolt out? Because this is cleaning, not spraying brake cleaner in the holes.

 

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Black70Fastback

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Mar 3, 2004

#17

• Mar 3, 2004

• #17

94Blue302GT said:

could someone explain what cracks you're looking at, i don't see any, and although my glasses ARE awefully strong, i don't get what you're looking at

Click to expand...

hmm. i guess you should have circled these for him. lol
its the part of the block where the top two bellhousing bolts thread in. towards the back of where the valley cover/intake manifold would be.

 

rickmazurek

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colorado

Mar 4, 2004

#18

• Mar 4, 2004

• #18

I will run a tap through the more crucial areas, not everything. I spray in some carb cleaner, blow it out with the air compressor and run a brush through the others that I dont tap. Im very thorough (sp?) when I work on my car, I dont like doing the same thing over again.

 

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unclejackrock

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Mar 4, 2004

#19

• Mar 4, 2004

• #19

Maybe the tranny was jacked up from the rear w/ only the top two bolts in it?????