Sounds like your professional didn't give you a professional weld. Cast iron can be welded, without much ado in fact. I've welded it just fine using the nickel rods another mentioned. I know other welders that use iron rods. Both work, I find the nickel to be more forgiving.
Cast iron gets pre and post heat treated primarily when welding heads. Exhaust parts, cracked blocks and such generally don't get treated. Just weld and go. All that said, with the repeated welding attempts on your manifold, at this point junking it and replacing it would make the most sense. I would suggest you make sure the strap that attaches just under the cat and connects to the bell housing is installed. This piece is rather important and reducing the stresses on the manifold caused by the weight of the cat. >>> "Greg Rowe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 06/16/03 10:17AM >>> 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 couldn t 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. ----------------------------------------------------- The information contained in this communication may be confidential, is intended only for the use of the recipient named above, and may be legally privileged. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication, or any of its contents, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please re-send this communication to the sender and delete the original message and any copy of it from your computer system. Thank you. ----------------------------------------------------- <<<<GWIASIG 0.07>>>> /// [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list /// Send admin requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool /// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive /// Send list postings to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// Edit your replies! If they include this trailer, they will NOT be sent.
