Technical Aluminum Intake Repair 409

I have a line on a small port 409 intake that I need for my 348 build.

Seller said ran, no issues but water passages pretty concerning. Think a professional could weld this up and then I could rework it?

It is cheap, do I buy and fix or spend all the money on a much cleaner one?

I have done a ton of welding but have not set up my
tig yet, so likely just bring to have it fixed.

Thanks in advance!

 

That could be welded up after a thorough cleaning. But, how rare are they because it may be cheaper to find a better one if it exists?

 

I don't think I'd have any compunctions about just running it, but that could be repaired inexpensively.

 

Clean it , clean it again , weld it up and mill it back smooth . No mill grinder and hand file . Carefully

 

Aluminum spool gun

carefull file work

done

 

There has got to be better ones out there that cost less than fixing that one.

 

IF , you do your own work , wouldn't cost much more than time to repair that , how much do you value your hot rod time at ?

 

I do a lot of welding, tig is not set up yet so would farm this out to be welded. Intake is a couple hundred, a real super clean one is a grand so that is what I am wrestling with.

 

Easy fix for a competent welder. I wouldn't give it a second thought.

-rick

 

Recently welded an intake with a spool gun
Liked it better than TIG.
Not the look. It just stacked up material faster.

 

I'd avoid it, there are plenty of good ones out there. The Edelbrock small port 1x4 is available new and possibly used somewhere and will work far better that any GM intake. You might also find some older Offenhauser intakes out there, depending on what you want.

 

I would keep looking, we just scored this absolutely mint big head dual quad 409 manifold for 400 bucks at the Portland Swap meet for the 409 we are putting together.

 

couple CI ones on Ebay now for $200 but ck 3 carbs for $120

 

Since it is just a coolant passage and the manifold was "running good" there are epoxy's out there that are heat resistant. Check into even J B Weld as an alternative to welding since aluminum welding appears to scare you. That would even be cheaper than another manifold or farming out the welding.

 

The biggest issue with welding cast aluminum in general is getting all of the contamination out of the porous material. And improper cleaning methods can contaminate the material as well. The bulk of the cost if you farm it out for welding would be the labor to clean. If you were able to do the cleaning you would be far ahead. Cleaning it yourself and using an epoxy repair should be something you can do. Cleaning for epoxy is more forgiving than cleaning for aluminum welding.

 

Frankly, I'm all about learning new skills, if that means I have to buy a new tool, take a class, or watch a lot of youtube videos, so be it. Embrace the challenge.

 

The MIG spool gun process doesn’t have to be as clean as TIG.

great when you need to stack material