welding Cast

[barnbikes]

any welding experts on here?

Looking at a 1928 Buick engine with a external cylinder block crack. Crack is about 13" long. Engine when repaired and finish would probably be run as a non pressure cooling system.

Now how to repair the crack.

One web site says braze another says stick weld with nickel rod another says weld and cover with sand for slow cooling another says weld and peen......

Anybody have any experience with engine blocks?

 

[clamper]

I brazed a diesel block once, problem is as it cooled it would crack more. The problem is the block needs to be heated prior to brazing or welding then it needs to cool very slowly. The old timer helping me said that packing the block in lime would slow the cooling but an oven is the best way to cool it slowly. I didn't have much luck and ended up buying a new block after all the work. Good luck hope someone else has some better information.

 

[Mike]

I saw a fellow weld up a block by first drilling a hole at the ends of the crack. He then started welding with nickel rod from the center, a tiny bit at a time so as to not build an excessive amount of heat. He said the crack would propagate with heat, but with the void of the drill holes, it had no place to go.

The best way is to braze with a furnace, using the heat of the block to do the job.

 

[GAB]

One of our local rodders from years ago, was a salesman for a welding supply company that specialized in what were called "maintainance rods". They were for critical industrial repairs. He gave me about a half dozen sticks of TIG rod for cast iron repair. That stuff worked great! You just V'eed out the crack or break and weld it up. No pre or post heating. I repaired quite a few things with those few pieces of material. Notice the past tense, its all gone and so is the donor. I would have bought some of it but it cost about 20.00 a pound and they only sold it in 10 lb. lots. That amounted to an awfully lot of 1980's money...for me at least. You might check around some industrial maintainance departments and see if any is available. It don't take much, what I had lasted a long time.

 

[bucketkids]

I used to weld cast quite a bit in the early 80's. I would pre heat it cherry red then hit it with a nickel stick. then I had a powder (like very fine sand) that I covered it with. Worked pretty good.30 years later I'm sure it has got better and easier.

 

[barnbikes]

well what I thought was a crack turned out to be a casting ridge.

But I did find another crack.