Well, dumb ass me busted my rare Desoto 4bbl intake when pulling a hemi. Whomever had the motor together didn't have all but one correct bolt holding the intake on and I ripped the sucker right off the top of the block. Busted the front corner off. $400 intake worth about $4 now . Does anyone know a good welder who can handle cast iron and who does quality work? Preferablly in the Northeast WI area? I have no problem paying good money for top quality. There is maybe 2-3 inches of welding needed, it doesn't look too bad. Anyone had luck welding cast? I would do it myself if I knew the tricks. Help a guy out, would ya?
Hey Cliff.... I,d call Fox Teck in Appleton and talk to the welding instructor for a lead on a good cast iron welder in the area,, he might know of someone...Big Dan
Option #1) Get some nickel rod, clean every thing up real good, get out the stick welder and weld short 1/2" long beads, chip off the slag, wire brush it clean, let it cool off until you can touch it with your bare hands. Lay another 1/2" long bead, chip off the slag, wire brush it, let it cool until you can touch it with your bare hand. Continue until you have it welded. Keep it slow and as cool as possible. Make sure you have the slag all off, the nickel rod will not burn through the slag. Option #2) Strip the manifold clean, heat the whole thing to 400 degrees. weld it while its hot. Cool in an insolated box very slowly until its cold. Option #2 is the best and most recomended, option #1 works well, most of the time. You could braze it also, but brazing does not add back in the strength. Gene
Cliff- clean the casting really good around the area that cracked if it allows you can bevel the area where you will weld heat the intake up hot- get it good and red, while its hot-hot weld it with a MIG welder w/gas no flux bullshit... and weld the cracked area. This will do the job, there is no magic to it- I welded up alot of casting flaws and so far they've all held - even did a input shaft on a trans- Tuck
my dad welded the head on our '48 john deere A tractor, water froze and busted the bottom slightly. chamferred weld area, put it in the oven on 500* until it was at temperature, hour or so. took it out, TIG welded it with cast iron specific rod, placed it back in oven. i think we left it at 500 for an hour, dropped it to 250 for an hour or two, then turned the oven off and left the head in there to cool, as the oven is an insulated box like mentioned above. machine shop told us that process. can your intake fit in an oven at all?
Sorry to hear about the intake. I just had one of those for sale cheap...I have welded manifolds with my wire feed and gas after heating... You should be able to find someone near youto do it... EVILT
the wekding rod you want to use is called NIROD. also peening it when your finished welding also helps. if its a crack your welding drill a small hole at the start of the crack and at the end of the crack,this will keep the crack from running on you. al sisson mosheim,tn.
Clean it real good, V it out, and you can actually just braze it with brass. Like mentioned above, preheating and letting it cool very slowly in sand helps a lot.
Make sure you weld it while its boled to the motor, or you will never get the intake to seal again. it will keep every thing alligned. Preheat it with a weed burner, even if using Nickel.
Hey Cliffy- Call Bob Norris at Grade A Welding in Fond du Lac. (920) 921-0180. This is the same Bob Noris (Cowboy Bob) that puts on the Pig and Piston car show in Fond du Lac every year, and the same Bob Norris that is father to our very own Junkyard Dog 32, aka Joe Norris. Bob's been in the welding business for about 35 years....if he can't fix it, nobody can! He's fixed alot of stuff for me in the past...alot of rare stuff, and I have no problem taking him hard to find shit...he always comes though. He's got a bunch of Hemis sitting in his shop right now too (they're for his projects) but he might have one like yours there, so he'd be able to weld your intake back together while on a motor without you having to bring him yours.
As you can see there are several methods. Preheating is probably the preferred way but if it was mine I would do the already prescribed prep work. Bolt it all to the engine to prevent warpage. Nickel rod is fine and I also have good luck with the cheap cast iron rod from the hardware store. And as mentioned, weld 1/2 inch and let it cool before continuing, but here is the critical part- Peen it with the pointed end of a chipping hammer until it is cool before continueing. Peening relieves the stress. I have welded up some pretty rotten exhaust manifolds this way, never preheated them either. And they are all still running around, some even on dirt track stock cars. After you have the thing structurally sound you may have to do a little filling with some good metallic filler if there is a port involved. I never use JB weld much but I know people who do and claim it works well for that.
Only thing that I would add to what has been mentioned is if you do not preheat it, leave a little air gap between the 2 pieces. This will allow for the weld to contract when it cools. The peening of the weld also helps with this. The problem when welding cast is that it cracks when it cools because the weld tries to shrink and the cast won't let it. If you use a stick welder, use the nickel rod. When I am lazy I use the mig and have not had a problem with that either. If you can weld fairly well, cast should not be a problem. Neal
Cast iron can also be gas welded with flux and cast iron rod. Pre and post heat also required http://www.cut-like-plasma.com/info_welding_cast_iron.htm
Also, don't be such a stupid ass and lift a Hemi out of a car by the intake manifold with one bolt in it. If you want to talk to someone at FVTC, Jim Berry is the guy you want to talk to. Otherwise Cowboy Bob would be a good choice too. You should see the Model T body collection that guy's got! Crazy.
As you can see, there are different ways to do it. Let me just tell you what I did on a cracked exhaust manifold on a Cummins Turbo diesel. We removed the manifold and took it to a very experienced welder I know. Since the manifold has to line up with the head in order to prevent leaks, he had to clamp it to a welding table and check for level. He wouldn't do it on the motor because he said the quality of the weld wouldn't be there. He beveled both pieces and used brass to repair the crack, letting it cool slowly. He said the nickel, although one of the wrecking yard recommended it, wouldn't take the heat/cold expansion. He knew this through trial and error and many years as a welder. All I can say is, it turned out perfect and we haven't had any problems. Good luck, sorry to hear about this but you know how it goes in this hobby, very few things actually go as planned. Oh, the cost was $60.00.
Thanks for all your advice. I think Cowboy Bob will get a visit one of these days. Squablows goats, kiss my ass. I have seen you do some stupid shit before.
ive welded up quite a bit of cast and everybody here has it nailed but the one and most important thing i see missed is the anealing process. my grandpaw tought me this, not only tought me but showed me. he took a header, broke the ol peice of shit in half and welded up one side with nickle rod and welded up the other side the same way. no fancy coolin no fancy process. he let them both cool then he took one side and anealed it, heated it up to straw color and then let it cool once again on its own. after some iced tea we went back out to the shop. he said i want ya to throw these on the floor as hard as ya can. oh ya that sounds like fun. i tossed em both on the ground the one that was just welded broke right in half hell i could have just dropped it and it would have broke, but the anealed would not break. it eventialy broke but in a differnt spot. its worked for me ever since
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