For those of you who have seen a Chevy 350 (1992 vintage) crack from freezing,
is it common for the heads to crack and not the block? Does the block usually
crack without cracking the heads or is the entire engine usually trash (block
and heads cracked)? Can it freeze and take months for the cracks to get big
enough to cause a problem? When a chevy 350 block freezes, where does it
usually crack? (in the lifter valley, in lower end or to the outside).

The story (been mostly posted before)

I've been trying to figure out what happened to the boat motor. Both heads
cracked. Both cracked to ourside and 1 had cracks in 2 of the combustion
chambers. The 2 different guys who inspected the heads both said "looks like
it froze". The 2 combustion chamber cracks were on the same side on the low
end so water would drain from there last. The problem showed up (water in oil,
hydrolocked with water in pistons 5 & 7) in late July in Texas after putting
many hours on it since "winter" (we had a mild winter last year and even if I
forgot to drain it, I don't think it got cold enough to freeze under the boat
cover, under the padded motor cover). I did overheat it last summer and
warped heads (water in oil and hydrolocked). No cracks found in heads then.
Had them planed and rebuilt. No problems the end of last summer nor beginning
of this summer.

Anyway, new heads appears to have fixed it but still wondering how I messed up
and broke it. Just wondering if I should be concerned about a crack opening up
on the block.

Thanks again for any insight.
Bob
bbusselman at hotmail dot com