Alpine Engine, Head, or Something needed:Recommendations?

From: Robert P Smith (rpsmith(at)attmail.com)
Date: Mon Oct 23 1995 - 09:32:01 CDT


Hello, my name is Robert Smith and I have an Alpine Series V #395008854.
 This car has 81k miles on it and I've had it for
longer that than I care to Admit---5 years. I bought it
because it looked a lot like the first car I ever owned,
another series V Alpine.
        Anyway, this car has been off of the road a lot more
than it has been on the road. Now, it just died, with very good
reason. It always had a lot of blowby pressure inside the engine.
I had never seen so much pressure .
Now that I have removed the cylinder head, Iknow why!!!
The main water passage is 3/4 blocked off by what looks like a
copper pipe (!?) that was 'dented'!! (Inside of the Aluminum Head!)
It appears that the car 's cylinder's 1 and 4 never got enough
cooling fluid to them. This resulted in EXTREME PISTON wear!!!
The topof the pistons are corroded/melted--down to the rings!!
Now wonder this engine always had an extreme blowby problem.
When you look down the cylinder, you can easily see the piston
rings!!! Part of the cylinder head also melted and it let in
antifreeze into the piston cylinder right next to the spark
plug hole. The funny thing is that the cylinders are not scored
scored even though the pistons are SHOT!!!!
        
        My question is , have any of you had any luck welding heads?
Do you/would you recommend this? It is only a very small hole to seal up,
from what I can see.....
        Do any of you have any heads you want to sell?
        Is it worth it to ' start over' with another old engine?
My Sunbeam is borderline at best, but is such fun to drive.
I am almost at the point of junking the car if I cannot find a 500 dollar
or less engine repair/replacemnt solution.
        This is my story, Any Suggestions?
By the way, I'm in New Jersey, near NYC, so there are a million parts houses
and machine shops around here. Do you ou have any that you recommend?
Thanks for the input!!!!!
Bob Smith



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