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" <growe58@hotmail.com> 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.
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