Block welding
 

I was given this block so we are going to weld it up ,got nothing to lose .

Re: Block welding
 

Luckily the two dowels and three of the four bolt holes are still in place, so hopefully it should be do-able. Looks like a piece has been cut out, I wonder if it was cut out to repair another block? You should be able to bolt a trans casing up to it to position the patch piece.

How do you intend to weld it, Ted?

I want to see how this comes out.

Mart.

Re: Block welding
 

A friend brought me a 39 Merc block broke in the bell housing similar to the one you have. Most all the pieces where there. I ground all the parts to a vee on the outer surface and used small tack welds to join them in place. Ground the tacks and with nichrome stick electrodes, welded 1" welds on the left side along with a 1: weld on the right side. Peened the welds. I was doing something on the lathe at the time. So after each 2"s of weld I would go back to the lathe. I never let it get hot enough that when I came back to make two more welds I couldn't lay my hand on the welded area. I also ground the stops and starts of each tack before doing the next tack with the edge of the grinder. The Ford castings welded real smooth with the nichrome. I first tried to tack the parts with TIG but even with small tacks as soon as I stopped I could here a ting and they would crack. I ground the welds smooth and took thick brush on engine paint and a plied a thick coat or two and let it set up some then took a stiff acid brush and stippled the paint which had the finish of the casting. He had taken the block to several welding shops before coming to me and they wouldn't touch it. I had welded a lot of cracked blocks over the years but never one this bad. There was nothing to loose so I did it and was surprised how good it came out. He asked me not to tell anyone, he didn't want people to know he had a repaired block in his car. I guess it's OK to tell now as he is no longer with us. G.M. I did bolt on an empty transmission case for alignment.

Re: Block welding
 

I have welded up a lot of cracked blocks using a stick welder and machineable cast rods. Never tried one that was bursted on a support area. I have a 8 N block that sooner or later I am going to have to weld in that area that is not completely broken out.

Re: Block welding
 

Ted, will you be fitting a gearbox housing to it, to do the job?

Re: Block welding
 

I've brazed several motorcycle cylinders and heads when replacement parts were scarce. Mostly the Harley Davidson iron parts for flatheads and knuckle heads. They always worked at least so far as I know but the owners ran them lightly afterwards. The cast iron responds well to heating it for welding purposes and then cooling it slowly as possible afterwards.

Re: Block welding
 

Yes I did a trial fit with a Trans/box attached

Re: Block welding
 

My grandfather had good success welding ford cast blocks.

Re: Block welding
 

The only real success we had with large cast iron parts was to preheat the whole thing with a couple rosebuds, arc weld with high-nickel rods, then pack and bury the part in lime and let it cool naturally (it would take a day or two).

I'm not a welder. I was a pre-heater and a lime-packing helper at the time. I can't give any detail on rod number, current or voltage. We were repairing slide valves approximately the same size as an engine block.

Re: Block welding
 

With cast iron after cutting and grinding the part for fit up, I carefully rough up the cut edges with a sharp Cold Chisel to expose a rough surface. This is something I learned many years ago. We were given small cast iron slabs and asked to prepare them for welding with Cast Iron Electrodes and Brazing Rods. On two pairs we ground the edges into the usual vee shape, on the other pairs we made the vee with a chisel, which tore rather than cut the material, thus exposing the large grain.

After welding we were asked to break the welds apart. The ground surfaces simply broke at the joint, some of the weld stuck enough to tear out some of the material around the vee. On the chisel cut surfaces the welds held and the cast iron bar broke elsewhere.

As far as pre-heating goes with HI-Nickel electrodes, you need only enough heat to displace the water within the iron. Whenever you see the edge of the dry heated area move across the surface, thats hot enough. That's known as Hand Hot, where you can touch the surface quickly with the back of your fingers but not get burned.

GM has the right approach with welding in sequences. You either work on other things while you are waiting or you drink a lot of coffee or tea. Also you don't need to worry too much about the cooling down process. Just keep the block away from draughts and off the floor, a heat blanket helps.

If you weld continuously (which in some ways is better) you will transfer a lot of heat into the block and the weld pool. We had a large box of Hydrated Lime (which is inexpensive) or you could use dry sand. If you use sand from a hardware shop you will have to heat it to get the moisture out. With that amount of weld the block will need overnight to cool down and possibly most of the next day.

Re: Block welding
 

Ted Ford cast iron welds extremly well the Weldwell products are readily available but the sticks are not cheap due to the nickel content.I have used cast iron rods with excellent results also Brazing works just fine the secret is preparation pre heat and post heat eveness in the heating procedure to prevent distortion. If you dont have the expertise yourself why not shop it out but very few welders these days have the knowledge to handle cast iron mostly us older blokes so check it out.

Re: Block welding
 

Thanks ,I did the pre heat and after heat high qaulty Rods ,plus peen the welds ,

Re: Block welding
 

Most all the old automotive cast is very high quality,and welds very well with cast rod. As most have said, the key is keep the heat down and peen. I use a needle scaler to peen the welds to relieve the stress. The other thing that is good about the needle scaler on cast is when you peen the weld after it is ground flush, the texture looks like the original cast. Very hard to tell piece was welded.

Bob

Re: Block welding
 

This is the finished job ,I like the idea of the Needle descaler

Re: Block welding
 

ted your a genius!!!!!!!!!!!!trev

Re: Block welding
 

Nice job, Ted.

Mart.

Re: Block welding
 

Good Job! interesting post!

Re: Block welding
 

Great job!!What happenened to the bell housing to damage such a large section?

Re: Block welding
 

I am not sure Mr Train ! But thanks to all those who posted ,Hopefully others can try this to .

Re: Block welding
 

Well done!

I don't know what Ford was thinking with those half-bells.