Very Strange Hurricane engine problem: NO water in cooling jacket!

OK so I've been working on cars, airplanes, Jeeps, dune buggies, trucks, motorcycles, missiles! and just about everything that has an engine for 50+ years and I've NEVER heard of anything like this! I just bought a '66 Jeep with the Hurricane engine. This week I started doing all the PM stuff that looks like it's NEVER been done! (The spark plugs that I took out haven't been made since the '70s!!!) I wanted to drain the cooling system and replace the fluid so I drained the radiator and then tried to drain the engine block. I tried to open the draincock but it wouldn't turn! I grabbed a pair of pliers and tried with them but it only turned reluctantly and only about 1/2 turn. So I grabbed a wrench and took out the draincock. It worked fine out of the engine. Also noticed that nothing came out of the hole. Hmmm. Took a small screwdriver and poked it in the hole and it only went in about 1/2 of an inch and meet with very solid resistance. In fact, I thought it had struck solid steel it was so hard! OK now things are getting interesting! OK go get out the books and made sure that that's where the drain REALLY is. It was. OK, now I'm scratching my head! Go and get a small but strong and stiff screw driver and started really digging and prying in the hole. I finally manage to pry out a small amount of very dark grey material that looks like sand. Everything was bone dry and I never did get any coolant out of the hole. I don't want to damage the threads or anything so I talked to a buddy that was a mechanic and asked his advice and he suggested that I use a pressure washer. Good idea, I hooked up my GOOD Honda PW and used the highest pressure nozzle and gave it hell! Nothing! The hole still isn't draining! I even refilled the cooling system, left the draincock out of the block, put the pressure cap back on the radiator and ran the engine until it was hot (and pressurized) but still nothing!


I'm stumped! The only thing else that I can think of is to grab a drill and go to town! But I don't know how deep I can go. So far the hole is only about 3/4" deep. Can anyone tell me how deep that hole SHOULD be?

I don't know but I THINK that material in there must be casting sand from when the engine block was first cast! I can't think of what else it might be. But it's amazing to think that that stuff might have been in there from the last 45+ years! If that's what it is then I'm amazed that the engine didn't have serious overheating problems!

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this before? No one that I talked to has!

 

Sounds like radiator sealant stuff to me. You know, the kind you pour into the radiator and hopes that it will fix a leak. Somone probably just poured a crap ton in and it just pooled in the bottom at the drain.

 

Sounds almost like someone put block filler in there-------but I can not think of any reason to do so-------unless it was an attempt to repair a cracked block???

You might consider pulling a freeze plug out, and seeing what is hidden away in there.

As long as the engine does not over heat, maybe just be happy, and dont mess with success.

 

I think I'd just re-fill the cooling system, fire it up & see how it does. You might be trying to fix a problem that's not there.

 

Because the drainc-ock is at the lowest point of the block absolutely everything that's heavier than water settles there. Pretty common problem, seen it lots of times, some not so bad, others real bad. Might want to pop the frost/core plugs and check to see how much crap is in there if you're real concerned about it. Probably not a bad idea anyway as they may be at the point of being ready to leak anyway if there's that much stuff in there. I spent a good hour blowing /chipping/blowing accumulated rust and crap out of my 360 block, amazing the amount that was in there.

 

I got a better one.

When I was a kid one of my friends father had an old Model T that he ran around in sometimes.
The goofy part was there was no water pump on the engine. Just a metal plate that was fitted in place of the pump. Never over-heated, ran just fine.

They did acquire a pump for the T engine from some where and installed it at one time. The engine would get over-heated in 15 minutes. Pulled the pump, and replaced the plate. No over-heating.

Some of them are just like that.

 

Saw a Model A from Downeast Maine once that had the block rusted out, due to the owner running salt water in it instead of antifreeze. Ya just never know.

 

Must have been a female engine. You know, sometimes you just can't figure them out!

 

Model T's were in fact designed and built to run without a water pump. Uses the "thermo-siphon" principle - in other words, hot water rises.

Many people fitted aftermarket pumps, but found the engine ran cooler without them. All part of Henry Ford's genius.

 

FWIW, my Farmall Cub (60 cu. in. flathead four) has the thermosiphon system. Not very common, but I've never had a problem with it. I think it's much lower pressure than a system with a water pump, too.

 

Should maybe go back to that system shouldn't we? Nothing like making your vehicle simpler, in my book.

 

My V6 had one side of the water pump outlet plugged off by cement like corrosion and it caused one side of the engine to overheat.
Pull the freeze plugs and use whatever tools you can to scrape and clean the crud out of the block. Then make up a tool that you can connect to your garden hose and also a compressor. While filling it with water hit it with short bursts of air to knock things around inside. Try it through your drain too. You will probably be able to knock the crud down and it will be good to go.