Yeah, lots of time to do weird-er stuff, go out and do risky stuff, recover from injuries, all that. Wifey should be thankful. Jim
back to the farms daze....like jumping off the roof of a tobacco shed. or who could pick up the front end of said tractor. or lot car and hitting a telephone pole OR one of those big propane tanks and put a BIG gouge in it. thankfully it didn't blow. slowed down after that. yeah, boring.....
so i found somebody that had an iron t/c. bought it. got it. nothing like the pic. junk. went roundy round with the clown. they took it back. early 60's omc stern drive with buick v6. they made alum for fresh water and iron for sea water. on the prowl for iron
the cover that was shown on eBay ad seemed to be same as aluminum v6 - 350 etc. Taking into account gear pocket wear of course. And it might have sealed better- longer than aluminum.. Thought timing marks could be different. I might have bought it myself, when I first started out. But if you receive something other than pictured its a whole different story. Lot of money for sure. Have any pics?
Can't you just sleeve the aluminum one? Sounds like you have the tools... We used to have a Doghouse also, gone now. https://pauldorpat.com/2009/09/05/seattle-now-then-all-roads-lead-to-the-dog-house/
I was at the shop of engine builder associated with precision turbo a while back and was looking at spec sheet for thrust plate to control movement of cam. I ain't certain - but modification - grinding of front of can to allow space to fasten plate to face of block . Would something like that work.
alum vs iron issue. the alum is what it is, alum casting. not much meat around the gear end. i.e the alum hole has been stretching. i think(?) that running hi rpm's and a blower is making some parts of the 350 stretch. sleeving is like sleeving butter. unless we pour a ton of devcon around it. yuk. i think the iron t/c would be a big help in everything on the front. just have to find one, a good one.
found a buick guy, no less, in kansas who has an iron t/c and coming to me. we were talking about buick boat motors. didn't know the v6 ones had extra casting material built in. too bad they never did the 350's. how much is that engine worth........AND why
going to vaporize all of it. that just cleans and does not upset anything. but i wont have the dizzy loose stretching the hole. no stretching iron.