Can you repair a cracked engine block?
It depends on how big the crack is, where it is, what the block is made of ( most often cast iron, sometimes aluminum, etc ) and how much the engine is worth.I was once a pro welder, and fixed a few blocks myself, if the crack was in an easy spot to get at it. Tougher jobs went to a specialist shop with better equipment, and yes, more skillful welders as well, lol.I have even fixed a block with a hole in it by simply patching it using a product called JB weld, but the hole was not in a spot where there was any oil or water passages or near any bearings or cylinder wall or bolt hole. It was made by a broken connecting rod. That repair cost only about ten bucks for materials and took only a few minutes and that engine ran for years afterward with no problems.Most of the time it’s possible to find a used block in good usable condition for less than it costs to repair a cracked block. New blocks are generally available for any engine less than about ten to fifteen years old.I don’t think it is possible to build a typical engine block using three D printing at this time, nor will it be possible in the near future, at least not using the usual materials, such as cast iron or aluminum, and without having to take the semifinished product to a specialist machine shop to have all the bearing seats, cylinders, etc, finished to close tolerances measured down to a couple of thousandths of an inch or so. Maybe some outfit like NASA could do it, but if they did, such a block would probably cost a million bucks.THREE D printing is mostly talk and not much in the way of reality, at least for now, if the end product has to be really accurately made and made out of very strong materials, except maybe for one off items such as an experimental model.I just read a piece about a SUPPOSEDLY THREE D printed house for instance, with video. The machine used was NOT a printer at all, it was an EXTRUDER that dispensed a very thick viscous concrete product like soft serve ice cream, and while it worked to build the walls, it was obviously only capable of building the walls, it could not extrude doors, or windows, or electric wire, or plumbing pipes, or a toilet, etc.I was impressed, but that house was NOT PRINTED, lol. It was squeezed out of a nozzle like toothpaste. 3d tech is still in the toddler stage, when you get right down to the nitty gritty, but it does show great promise!