I was poking around in preparation for block oiling mods and happened to notice this little gizmo staring back at me from inside the water jacket core area:

Whazizit? A core fixture artifact perhaps?



A little wiggling and it's coming out!

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1966 Coronet Deluxe

in the process of making a casting, sand cores are used to produce the internal cross sections of the casting, where the iron is not present,, areas like the water jacket. Sometimes the cores are vented to allow gas that is generated when the hot liquid metal comes in contact with the sand core, to pass out of the core and not be forced into the iron. There are occurances when iron leaks into the vents, the iron then takes the shape of the vent,
looks to me what you have is a piece of "vent iron".

I think it is a 1956-57 Buick Roadmaster Hood Ornament that shrunk in the Hot Water!

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1964 Dart GT

I wasn't aware of the venting in casting, thanks for sharing that.

Funny you mention that, it's just what I thought when I finally got it out of there!! Maybe I should try to dump it on ebay, "Ultra rare shrunken vintage hood ornament vent iron gizmo - BIN for only 1 bazillion $$"

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1966 Coronet Deluxe

That is a core gas vent, filled with metal.
A SL6 engine block is sand casted with many cores and each foundry had their "special way" of venting the cores, to prevent trapped gas and voids in the castings.

Basically, a long hole was drilled thru the upper water jacket core and those "fins" were also "carved-in", to collect and allow gas to escape, from the lower water jacket core.
DD

Sheesh, it took me forever to finally get through my thick skull that our related "freeze plugs" are actually "sand-core plugs" and now this! I'm learning more every day, great info and image, this is good stuff!

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1966 Coronet Deluxe