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You have an advantage over me in that you have the block to look at and I"m going from memory. I think QC or lack there of was responsible for the cracking in these blocks. Thin wall casting is much better today than it was in the late "40"s and early "50"s. The rods that I remember in my old engine were no more that 0.125" OD max, maybe even 3/32". Since the cracks in your block are in the lower end of the "sleeve supports", I would assume that you"d have to lower the position of the tension rods to the area where the cracks are located. You can"t go too low because you an run in to an oil gallery, the cam, etc. But with some careful thought and planning, you might be able to make it work. You live in Ohio, an area with a lot of heavy industry, and I gotta" believe there are many shops that do braze repairs on these cast iron blocks near you some where. You can"t believe the damage that I have seen repaired with this method. I think I related the Case backhoe engine that I saw reapired this way. The main bearing supports (2 of 4 supports as I recall)were cracked all the way through from the top of the block area to the journal bore. There were additional cracks in the cylinder area. The block was braze repaired, align bored and rebuilt and was running and the unit was in use the last time I saw it. If I had seen it before they had sent it off for repair, I would had said they were nuts for trying to repair it. As I recall, the repair cost was not that excessive and was competitive with the price of a used block. You"re a pretty clever mechanical guy so I"m sure you can figure out a way to use tension rods on your problem if it is possible to do so. However, the location of the cracks in your block make locating tension rods more challenging than in those that have cracks in the upper part of the block and a braze repair might be the only way to accomplish the task in your case. Hope these comments are of some use to you. Regards,
Jerry
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