however not sure about the other stuff in the second add
He didn't do these repairs himself, he shipped them to a company down south (if there was no other option for it).
If you don’t terminate the crack with a drilled hole at and just ahead of leading edge it will continue to extend even after welding, hence the dowel
The Rover was a combustion chamber crack, lot of stress there. I've known guys patch blocks with Devcon or similar with good results.Not too hard to do, depending on the severity of the crack or damage to be refurbished.
Bought @ auction & repaired a fairly new Series 2A 6 cylinder landrover in 1969. The engine block crankcase had a hole caused by a thrown a rod.
The engine crank was repaired & engine rebuilt. Vehicle only had very low miles & looked like new.
Shaped a piece to fill the hole, tightly.
Then I stitched, repaired & painted.
Didn't leak oil & I made a tidy profit on that one.
In those days stitch kits were sold & tradesmen often did repairs like this themselves.
If not available in OZ now, will be available in US with full instructions.
Block Repair using Metal Stitching
www.secondchancegarage.com
Funny story. I found a 15 year old article online about a guy in NSW with a 1925 9/20 Rover. One of the car's photos was in his decrepit old shed. In the background was a pile of parts, I made out a complete engine as well as a cylinder head in the photo. The article mentioned his name as well as the small town in which he lived. Long story short I tracked him down, he packed the head in a little wooden toolbox and sent it to me for $150 including freight. Best part was it passed the engineer's inspection with flying colours, just needed a light cut of the valves and seats.I could imagine he doesn't want to get geared up to do the work himself which would be a cost. Then he has to school one of his staff to do the work. The 'get a new head' comment is okay if there any spares laying about, but old stuff is getting thin on the ground because people like me keep melting stuff down, bastards
It has been my experience that bronze welding(brazing) is a much over looked old method. Now obviously the details of the job and the scale of it have a great bearing on things so generalisation is hard to say. Actually stainless rods are the answer to a lot of difficult welding of odd ferrous materials and also to others. Of course the grinding out the crack to the bottom and ends, and preparation of the surfaces etc is vital, preheat, sand bed and/or fire blanket for cooling control etc is just the same as any good welding job. Use hi-test rods and flux. I might have to say my eyesight is not so good these days for welding though.
A mate of mine is fortunate enough to have had an general engineer for a father and a blacksmith for a grandfather. His business is a combination of the two, but there is nothing he can't repair.Hi
Regarding repairing cracks in castings.
But electric welding of cast iron has been problematical in my experience mostly because of the difficulty of getting a person who can do it properly, prepare it and di it slowly. Preheating and post controlled cooling is vital. . Using mig is not on as the wire is not available. Although I have seen bronze wire used for galvanised product welding. The only thing that might work ok is electric using soft stainless rods after proper opening out the crack to the bottom etc.
But my preferred method for a lot of jobs in the past, including cracks and exhausts incl making tubular 'extractors', has been bronze gas welding !
) and began brazing. Once he'd done that he got a giant set square and began heating here and there with me swinging on a strategically positioned length of pipe. Couple of quick diagonal measurements and job done.
Hi Graham,
Successful cast iron welding requires preheat to around 600°C.
I remember some years ago I was visiting Ajanta caves in Maharashtra. THe way down was a steepish hill.