Restoring - General discussions that span across many different groups of years and models > Drivetrain

Late 65 289 engine block anodes?

(1/3) > >>

fjm:
After my teardown of my late 65 289 engine block and cleaning after 40+ yrs of sitting in my garage, I soaked the inside of the block to dissolve old rust.  When I flushed the block and rotated upside down to drain an almost a marble sized chunk of material came out of each side.  Thought they might be iron slag left in during casting, but they are not magnetic.  Did Ford put a chunk of magnesium or the like in each side as an anode to help prevent corrosion?  Never heard of this before and don't know.  Any ideas?  You help appreciated.

CharlesTurner:
Never heard of it

J_Speegle:
Never seen or heard of anyone finding such nor anything I know of in TSB articles or other Ford documents

KevinK:
Sacrificial anodes are usually zinc and attached for servicing. Finding 1 could be from a previous owner’s experiment. Finding 2 and one on each side sounds well planned.

I suggest cracking them open to see what it’s made of. Zinc is soft and shines at clean metal surface.  It could possibly just be a collection of crud.

fjm:
I have 2 pieces and each piece looks like the other but one is a bit smaller.  The larger piece is roundish and a bit smaller than a dime.  I just filed a piece and found it to be relatively soft, very shiny, and metallic.  They do have a bit of weight to them for their size.  Since neither is magnetic, my vote is that they are zinc anodes put into each side of the block.  Now-a-days you can get anodes for/with a radiator cap, so maybe Iaccoca and his boys thought of it back then.

Anyway, just thought that if I was to post this anywhere this would be the site.  I would post a picture if I knew how.

So all the stangs out there without a block anode piece might not be Concours after all.   Kidding of course.   ;)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page