Welding cast alloys

[cute wee gem]

Trying to make a front facing TB manifold at the moment using a Toyota plenum/TB on Isuzu runners but running into problems, hopefully theres some engineering types who can help me.

Basically I've had a play with a spare Toyota manifold and can run weld without filler fine, although the alloy is spotted black? When I try to add filler rod the "flame" turns green and tries to push the filler away and refuses to bond with the alloy. I managed to get a couple of beads running but most of the time it won't bond.

I can find the type of filler rod if that helps. I'm using 100% argon and "white" tungsten, flow at about 12 but tried higher and lower but no difference.

[eke_zetec_RWD]

pre heat the manifold quite warm. sounds too cold. makes easy to weld plus wont tend to crack after.

are you sure your not trying to add stainless wire?? lol

also has to be so super clean, use a dedicated alloy grinding disc. how many amps you running?

[T-Rex]

Yeh clean the shit out of it, grind back to clean metal etc

are you sure your not trying to add stainless wire?? lol

[sheepers]

you need the right filler wire too, its 4314? i think.

whatever it is it starts with 4 (thats the only number left i can read on the packet i have)

use a 3mm end mill in a dremmel to grind out the black bits. this gets rid of most of the shit and leaves a nice clean surface to weld with.

mind you, the only 3mm end mills that come in straight shank are carbide so they are pretty expensive.

if you cant use the dremmel, use a file, anything but a grinding disk or flap wheel, they introduce more shit than they get rid of.

hope this helps,

sheepers.

[eke_zetec_RWD]

you can get special alloy discs which iv found are fine, but yea alloy style carbides work so sweet and fast.

[tortron]

just to add on

typically every manufacturer will have their own "recipe" when it comes to casting stuff so some will weld better than others

The black bits are impurities in the aluminium, so pays to get rid of them if you want a good weld

[cute wee gem]

Success!

I got a nice clean weld going first time I tried tonight, still need a little more amps though I think. Rod I am using is ER5356 so not stainless

I think my main problem was not enough amps and using the grinder to clean it with

Cheers for the help!

[RUNAMUCK]

yeah, use a fresh disc to grind it. Any steel from an old dics can fuck up your weld. Plus cast stuff can often weld shit cos they fill it up with shit metals like zinc etc so that it casts nice.

[sheepers]

good to hear man, you ll have even more success with 4043 filler rods (i went into the shop today and asked what the correct number is)

5356 are more of a general type for welding sheet and pipe.

but good to hear you've got something you can use.

i personally wouldn't use grinding or flap wheels because they (in my experience) introduce more shit than they remove, but whatever floats your boat.

sheepers.

[ProZac]

Ditto sheepers above on comments regarding grinding discs or flapper wheels. Biggest problem i found when paying with welding alloy was that i needed way more surrent than i initially thought. Once i started really flooring the pedal everything started going sweet.