308 Mystery Pieces

TwinH

Machine work done and just chasing threads before a final soap/water/air hose bath and I found these wires in the coolant passages. This is my plan'B' engine that came with my 49 C8 as a spare and now have rebuilt instead of the 60 over,30/30 crank engine that broke last spring. The plan 'B' engine is a 55 that had a new rotating
assembly.Crank,rods,and,pistons were all new, never run,BUT had a used cam/hydraulic
lifters and valves that had been reground till almost no margin left.

Anyway,while eyballing it I spied a wire in the coolant passage where the water manifold slides into the block. I pulled the first one out and then saw another.I fished it out too. Then I looked through the holes in the deck and saw another one
clear in the back.I liked to never get that one out.They are all three the same
.076 steel wire bent in a way that nests nicely around the bottom of the cylinders
inside the coolant passages. The only thing I can even guess is that they might have
held casting cores in position when they cast the block. Has anybody ever seen these
before?

Ol racer

FYI

Ive seen wires in the water passage too and told back then blocks were cast in that manner....