Welding Cast Iron

[Dave Speed]

I have a 40's vintage Lister diesel head with some cracks.

Prehear and weld with nickel rod?

Have an experienced shop do it?

Dave

[Gordon Maney]

Crack repair in cylinder heads

There is a shop in this state, as I would guess there may be one or more in yours, that does proper crack welding of cylinder heads and other castings.

The best job is done by preheating the castings in an oven and then welding with a torch and cast iron filler rod.

It is possible to weld using nickel rod, short beads, lots of peening, but it is not as good. There is still shrinkage in the cooling of the beads with resultant stresses developed.

I would urge you to have it professionally done, if this is a head you prize.

[JimmieD]

I agree strongly with Gordon!

A dime-a-dozen head, no big deal, play with it. A Lister Petter? I'd pass on a home fix on that one due to the huge compression on a diesel engine. Big difference between welding up a 7.5-8.0:1 compression ratio head compared to a 17.5:1 diesel piece, especially a fairly rare and pricey one!

Additionally, as implied by Gordon, shop around for a topnotch shop to do the work even if it costs some shipping or whatever. Some would even suggest a pre-repair magnaflux analysis AND a post repair magnaflux, after it's 'finished'!

Did you by chance e-mail me, Dave [stlo]? I have an e-mail supposedly from you sitting in my 'Blocked' area in e-mail handler, give me a holler and I'll move and open it. Sorry if this was inconvenient to you but you know how it is in cyberspace nowadays....

[Dave Speed]

back at you.

sorry; this is now years gone.

The fellows south of the border ran it on high compression (start) and destroyed the head. I only paid $250 for the engine and sold it for parts for $250 to a chap in Midland, TX.

Where in Kali do you hang? Lived there for years.

dspeedat4speedsdotnetx

d

[JimmieD]

Failed to see the date on this, and responded because of the e-mail supposedly from you. Didn't open it. Looks like your e-mail addie from the forum was used to send me a phishing e-mail or something! Your other one is already in my address book.

I'm south central, Dave. No more snow I hope.....