At 10:17 AM 6/16/03 -0400, Greg Rowe wrote:
>My 78 spitfire with catalytic converter suffers from cracks in the exhaust
>manifold. I had it professionally welded up a couple of years ago, but it
>broke into two pieces within about a month. Just recently I had to put it
>back on for emissions reasons, so I did a quick weld up using my own amateur
>skills and wire feed welder; it got me through the inspection, but is now
>leaking again. I took it off and tried welding it more carefully, but had
>trouble. There was a lot of spatter and the beads resisted "sticking" to
>the metal. And I couldnt get a continuous weld, the welds insisting on
>"beading up" kind of like water on a freshly waxed car. I tried several
>different settings on the welder with no luck.
>
>My questions are:
>
>Why did the welds behave like that?
>And does anyone have any opinions about heat temperature epoxies in this
>application? My local auto parts store carries one; I thought that if I
>smeared it all over the manifold, it would not only reinforce my welds, but
>seal the small leaks between beads.
Greg,
I believe that the POR company has come up with a special expoxy for fixing
manifolds. I've seen it advertised at local car shows. I don't have any
personal experience with it thought.
As to welding the manifold. I'm no welder, but talking with many car buddies
at work, most manifold are cast iron. If so, they have to be handled a
special way, you just can't start welding on it. I'm not sure about all
the particulars, but one thing I seem to remember is that you had to preheat
the part before you can weld it.
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 48 #4 Midget 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V
75 Bricklin SV1 (#0887) 77 Spitfire 71 Saab Sonett III
65 Rambler Classic
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
/// spitfires@autox.team.net mailing list
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|