I just tore down a 330 Desoto that I recently acquired and discovered it was probably parked a long time ago due to cracked head. I have not magnifluxed them yet but it looks like just one head with one crack between the seats. Who has successfully had Desoto heads repaired and what method was used.
i have had several diesel heads welded usually through the local catarpillar dealer with great sucsess, also have given them detriot diesel heads to weld as they crack between the injector hole and valve seat commonly and similar to a desoto head. this was my concern erlier on a set of desoto heads that werent cracked that if i had exhaust seats installed this would potentially make for even a thinner web of head cast material between the spark plug hole and the exhaust seat. anyway i had the seats installed and wee will see how they hold up. i wouldnt hesitate to have desoto heads welded but would definately have someone do it with experience. gotta save as much of that vintage iron as we can, good luck and let us know what you did
Have em welded by someone who knows what theyre doing and youll be happy. I was a VW mech and the dual ports constantly crack between the valves cause theres not much meat there. I welded them up and all was better.
Thanks fella's I'm going to talk to Dean over at Trinity Casting service and see what he thinks. I was thinking of either s***ching/lacing or spray welding. ****gy, I appreciate the thought but I still think this one can be saved. They are getting harder to come by every day and I'd hate to s**** it. But if a good core came along for the right price I wouldn't mind putting this one on the get-around-to-it shelf for awhile. I am curious why this seems to be somewhat common on the Desoto tall deck engines. Do the low decks have the same issue? I wonder if there are hot spots with the factory cooling system or is it just a casting design flaw?
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