Mopar Muscle Association UK

So what rumours/facts/humbug have you heard of re: Seasoning Engine Blocks?

I heard a story of BMW (I think) engine blocks that sit around outside the factory to get "seasoned" by the weather and employees take a leak on them to help. Also didn't someone bury a load of Hemi blocks for 20 years to season them. Whatcha heard?

I usually used freshly ground sea salt and black pepper...just right for a stroker!

I'd guess a little tabasco or worcester sauce would do it

No seriously the only way to season a block, is to cycle it many times, getting it very hot, but not boiling over and cooling naturally.

Old blocks are more sought after treated like this, as it sorts the strong blocks out.
Core shift, stress cracks, have caused failure.
Foundry sand and loose casting flashings are mostly gone or easily removed.
And a cycled block is less likely to move about, much more.

read this about grand national ( nascar ) hemi blocks , let them sit out in all weathers with water being sprayed over them to stress releve

Kev those were the F1 BMW blocks in the turbo era, the re engineered road car engines beat the whole field of big buck stuff.

They were used old engines, were'nt they 2002 turbos

Someone told me the oxidization helps to settle the iron's grain structure before final machining, don't know if that's cobblers or not...

Usual way to season castings is to lightly skim all surfaces that will be finish cut and then stand the block out to relieve stresses. The stress is in the skin of the casting. Not a problem with modern materials and casting methods.

Kev wrote:I heard a story of BMW (I think) engine blocks that sit around outside the factory to get "seasoned" by the weather and employees take a leak on them to help. Also didn't someone bury a load of Hemi blocks for 20 years to season them. Whatcha heard?

I must be well season'd by now........

There is a bit of confusion over "seasoned alloy castings"
Basically there are two types of aluminium alloys, heat treatable and Non heat treatable.
Aluminium alloys, both wrought and cast, are heat treated to increase strength and hardness.
Also by machining a casting you are removing a part of the outer skin and this induces stresses and these can be removed by heat treatment which can include quenching, effectively sort of annealing the metal which reorganises the size of the crystal structure.
Unfortunately this process softens and weakens the metal and by varying the combination of temperature, time quenching medium (ie Bananarama!) and the cooling period different strengths and properties can be obtained.
In the cooling process the alloy actually hardens this is called "Age hardening" and this can take between 3 and 30 days depending on the alloy and the heat treatment used. hence the term "Seasoning"
Many casting were placed outside during the age hardening process simply because effectively the casting was dead stock until it reached its max strength before it could be used.
Some aircraft rivets were age hardened in the freezer to maintain there maximum strength these then age hardened at room after working.
The Non heat treatable alloys strength can only be improved by cold working the ie the more you Bananarama! the harder it gets up to a point.
The only reason I can see that used blocks were favoured was that the blocks had proved themselves under stress not that they had got stronger after a extended period of time.

Yea , what Bob said.