The machinest doing the work was elderly, told me he started working in a machine shop in about 1958. He worked pretty much exclusively IHC diesels until about mid 1970's. He did a lot until the mid 1980's, and still has a few coming through.
I had cleaned the head before bringing it into him, he inspected it, no cracks were apparent, but after the magna fluxing, there was a crack running from one of the precups. I had talked on the phone with him about finding another one, but he advised me that it is very rare to find one that was not cracked. And that they repaired quite easily. After all his years of work, I didn't doubt his knowledge, and the repair was made.
We talked about the cracking issues, he had remembered all the different excuses that were brought up. But the fact was, that by the time an IH diesel came in, it was so brutally over-houred, part of the rebuild quote was to repair the cracked head, that was the nature of the beast. He had worked on a ton of jet heads, but the cracking around the precup area was never solved.
Sharing his knowledge was greatly appreciated, he does excellent work. I have my head back, repaired, machined, magna fluxed, pressure tested, ready to go. I didn't see the cracked head, truth is, that the naked eye seldom ever does, that is why this type of work gets sent out to the people with the proper equipment.
One stellite seat had to be installed.
