Is repairing a cracked head viable?

[tylerz]

I have recently been informed that my cyclinder head is cracked but that it can be repaired through a stitch technique. Anybody have experience with this and whether it is reasonably reliable if one is not expecting it to last much more than 4 years or so? This is for a 2QM20.

Thanks,

Tyler

[Talbot]

By the time you have had the stich repair done, and then skimmed the head to make sure it is flat, you could probably have bought a replacement head. beware of doing this without skimming the head as that is a recipe for a frequent blown head gasket. Make sure that the head skim does not have to take so much material off that you have problems with significant increased compression or even piston clearance.

[Alan Wheeler]

Hi Tyler, if the head is repaired properly, you should not have any problems. It should be econimical to do, considering what you have to pay for a new one, if you can find a new one. You will just have greater down time, is all.
Has the desiel mechanic advised you as to how and why the head cracked. I am not an expert on the Yanmar engine, but have never heard of one of these cracking a head.

[tylerz]

Thanks for the responses. The repair stitch itself will cost around $120 but then the rest of the work to prepare the head should run it up to about $600. It was suggested that overheating was probably the cause of the head cracking. Too little water flow maybe. I just recently cleaned out all the cooling system and passage ways, which were abundantly coated in salt at all the zinc inserts. It looked really bad, although the passage ways through beyond those locales, appear quite free of salt. Maybe these areas of the zincs were so bad that they had hindered proper cooling flow?

Considering a new head looks to be 4x more than the repair and a used one, if I can find one, will most likely run me more than twice that after duty, parts, testing, etc... I think I should just repair it for now while I continue to search for a good deal on a used one. At least that way I can get some sailing done in the meantime. Thoughts?