Has anyone tryed to weld bracing inside the main webs for strenght? There is a stick welding rod out there that I have seen a man use to weld up the block on a 4.3 chevy engine where the starter bolts on with the engine still in the unit (crane). There is no need to preheat the block and I suppose after the welding is done then the block should be checked for straightness or line hone it. Any opinions here?
Depends on the rod used, I don't think stick is as good as MIG or TIG. I think the best way is the TIG weld with a nickel rod. I'm all for welding the crack prone pigs. I had the rocker stands on my iron heads welded and it looked and worked great. I am by no means a welder but just what I hear...
A while back (a few years!) I looked into a procress that sprays molten metal and is used to build up areas and repair damage. I thought it would be a good way to add metal to the weak areas in the block to add strength.
i've talked to some guys that say that's a good way to finish up cast iron welds and/or to fill in cracks in an iron block......but that's in the case of tractor engines and such...... don't try to weld braces to your block.......it will cause many many problems....i was gonna write why, but i found this blurb on a website that explains it better.....they're promoting a cast iron repair method called lock n' stitch(which i've also heard works well), but this is still all true:
here is the site: http://www.locknstitch.com/ i didn't post it before cuz i didn't want to sound like i was promoting it, it just happened that they had a nice little explanation of why welding cast iron can be problematic......
welding??? as a pro certified welder I would not weld bracings inside the block. no doubt they would stiffen the block and perhaps fix some strength issues but you could distort the block and create stress areas that would hurt your rotating assembly. This has been done to the buick 215 /Aluminium Rover block inside the lifter valley but only prior to lifter bore bushing and cam tunnel boring. repairing threads outside of critical areas, like the starter bolt thread mentioned earlier is a different thing... although I would have used Helicoil myself :laugh:
