+1 the case is aluminum.

( You could try an aluminum magnet, but those are as hard to find as new muffler bearings. )

It looks weld-able to me. Agree that you need to pull it to have it done right. That should help in locating the little punch too. Looks like a winter project .
Dan

 

Yeah, I'm going to start pulling the case apart this week after I give it a good washing.

I have a buddy who owns a powdercoating shop who has a welder on staff, he told me to bring it down and he'll take care of it. Good to have friends in that business

So yah, I'll be pulling the motor and cleaning everything out. and having that mount re-welded.

Still can't believe the hit was that hard to punch through three pieces of metal.

 

Larry, please keep us informed of progresss. I'm eager to see if opening the case is a hard job.

I'm also curious about that skid plate bolt being a potential punching bullet. Or can we count this as a new side effect of going big bore? 351= bigger chance of punching the engine case. I'm just kidding here but there's a reality to it.

 

Any video of the ride you were on?

 

it can be fixed, but i would definally find that bit of metal. bottom end is probably fine i would think. good luck man.

 

Unlucky Larry.

I think you will repair that without issue.

BTW, what brand skid plate is that?
Just want to know what to avoid.

 

Sorry about the dammage Larry, that truly sucks. And as far as that "punch" peice, it will never come back out through the same hole. How did anything get up there to hit the case in the first place? Did it get through in one of the holes in the plate? I was never a fan of plates with clean out holes. Good luck man!

 

No vid of the ride unfortunately..

The skid plate is the utah skit plate, mounted with the included hardware...

Deej - what happened is the hit was directly on one of the forward mounting bolts of the skid plate.. That in turn popped that cross-mount that the skid plate bolts on to, and THAT then went up into the motor and the skid plate mount bolt was what punched the perfect little 6mm hole in the bottom of the case..

A little chain reaction. Think about how hard I had to land on that rock to punch the skid plate hard enough to break the cross mount, and still go in more and pop a hole in my case. Crazy!!

For anyone running that skid plate - it's probably a very small chance of this happening, but you might want to pull those bolts and cut them down so only a MM or two is sticking up through that cross mount.. If that bolt was shorter it would never have caused that damage. I will be trimming both of them after the repairs.

 

Perhaps you could put the bolt heads on top?

David

 

I don't think this incident took all that hard hit at all.

The skid plate is only as "strong" as the piece of frame it's mounted to.
And is this case the cross beam that the plate mounts to has already been cracked sometime earlier, maybe multiple times, and rust over time has made it even worse.
By now the bash plate could have been kicked in with a boot.



See how both ends of the cross beam are cracked and rusted. These cracks have been there for a long time, there was probably very little metal holding the thing in place by the time the last hit knocked it loose.

And it really doesn't take all that much to punch a small object, like a bolt, through a thin section of cast aluminum engine case.

--
Mikko