I have been looking at a few 1071 S blocks, and it seems quite common that they crack horizontally along the block, between the tappet chest and cylinders.
Has anyone else come across this? Or am I just lucky
-It did seem that they were cracked in-line with the end of the machining from the cam follower bores. -Makes me think that I will carefully blend out these areas when I come to build my engine.
I know of a 1293 race engine for a german historic racer which cracked during a dyno session in the same way. The crack was not noticed, once in the car the mechanic expereinced a mysterious water loss. A devil to find.
Sorry no pictures, I'm afraid.
The worst one was cracked from side to side (cylinder 1 to cylinder 4) more or less in the middle of the tappet chest. -It was very obvious
I have also seen cracks around the threaded boss for the tappet cover bolt (as though somebody had over tightened the cover bolt -it must of been REALLY tight!)