I'm currently trying to weld a couple AN fittings onto an H22 valve cover, and I got the first one welded up just fine, but the second one is just terrible. I have pre heated, wire brushed, a/c cleaned, and I'm getting no where with this thing. Everytime I attempt to start a puddle, the base metal just becomes all porus and spatters everywhere, and no matter how many times I go over it, it's the same way. I was just curious if we any of you guys have had any experiences like this, or any advice for me, because I'm about to throw this valve cover across the shop...

 

Did you wipe it down with some acetone? That was happening to me. I wiped it down with acetone but I also realized my gas flow was pretty low, check that also.

 

I've punched the gas all the way up to 35 with a gas lense, and have used acetone. I've tried everything i know to clean, and nothing seems to be working

 

Alright, I just media blasted it, and threw it in the oven at 500 degrees. Gonna leave it in there for a hour or 2, wipe with acetone again, and see what happens.... Any other suggestions are more than welcome

 

Once contaminated it's really hard to weld. You need to get all that crap out of the pores you created....

 

I normal clean the valvecover with de greaser(purple power) then soap and water. Then i sand off the paint or powder coating about 1/2in around the hole or maybe a tad more. then i hit the hole with a map torch for 20-30 seconds. You will see moisture come to the surface, soem oil burn off then taper off. This usually works very well for me.

Make sure you get all of the abrasive grit out of the valve cover before you put it on a motor.

 

I've been doing a mix of media blasting and wire wheeling after going over it with the torch to try and bring the contaminants to the surface, but I've almost made my way through the base metal at this point

 

Tried putting it in a different spot? sounds like you hit a really shitty spot in the casting. Only God knows whats in there.

 

I wish I could. It's not like I can just weld the hole back up :p

 

from the look of it you just need to toss that cover, whatever you do to make it right isnt gonna look right at all. get a new one get it blasted and heat that cover up where your welding it. gl

 

Those are actually my exact thoughts right now. Bulkhead fittings FTMFW next time.... : /

 

time to implement some durafix?

 

take a die grinder and grind out all the contaminates

 

Castings are very difficult to weld. Not saying all but most. They will also have good areas and bad. Clean the area to be welded with a carbide burr. Clean it with NON clorinated brake clean or similar. DO NOT USE REGULAR BRAKE CLEAN!!!!!!!!!!! Give it a quick test. Slowly try to get the part to temp with the tig torch. Don't try and get a big puddle but just a tiny one to start with. Once you have that small puddle started you will be able to see if your going to have issues. You may be able to see it even before you have a puddle if Oil or contaminates ooze out of the material. If this happens then stop and use a propane torch and slowly heat the area giving the oil a chance to come out without cooking it in the pores of the material. Heat the backside not the side your welding if possible. If you cook it it will end up being black specs and stuff in your finished weld. You may need to do the cleaning several times if the cover is a porous POS. Last option is use as little heat as possible. You can get the material to just become molten and then add filler to it and build from there. Do this using as little heat as possible and also a 1/16 filler wire.
Your only adding a fitting with no pressure/load so you don't need a super strong weld.

Porsche has some of the nicest welding castings. Honda castings are as bad as harley davidson ones

 

dont take offense to this, but do you have the welder on a/c setting?

 

Yes, it's on a/c. I'm waving the flag of defeat on this one, new cover is on the way, along with bulkhead fittings

 

did you try a new tungsten? sometimes those get so contaminated that you cant ever weld with them anymore.

 

i welded a shifter extension for a w58 trans in a 240 a couple weeks ago and one spot on that SOB just didnt want to cooperate. the whole thing welded pretty good but that one spot i had to go back to last and just fizzle and fill till it was closed. prolly the same deal for you, just that one part of the valvecover thats just never gonna look right.

hard to tell but that corner thats not closed was just retarded to weld.

 

I would not use a gas lens on something dirty like that. I have had the same problems before and it ended up being the lens catching little bits that spatter up from the dirty metal. I changed everything before I figured it out...gas, tungsten, cup, gas flow...

 

I have run into simialr issues, we have an old dishwasher at the shop that we toss all our parts in for final cleaning after degreasing and such, but what i have noticed is if you have the right fitting, start your arc on the fitting and snake your way for just a second on the valvecover and then quickly move back to the fitting, just enought time to push the puddles to the valvecover, this has worked for me just fine. my first one looked like that, all blistered looking and whatnot