question

[jlcross81]

on my farmall it has an oil leak near the fron corner on the motor where it bolts to the front end can this be welded by someone that knows ow to weld cast iron. It leaks a little bit of oil through the crack I really don't care about what the weld looks like as long as it stops the little oil leak!

[ChickenWing]

Cast iron can be welded, but my understanding is that it requires an knowlegable person to do a good job. I also read a welding forum periodically, and they seem to feel with the correct rods,welder, and technique, it is fairly simple. Maybe check there for tips.

http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/for ... ay.php?f=4



Here is another info page about welding cast iron:

http://www.locknstitch.com/CastIronWelding.htm



Another stop gap measure that I've heard is to repair the crack with JB Weld. You would need to clean and degrease the area very well to get it to stick. But this is just to stop the oil leak, it does not address the issue of diminshed strength in that area of the casting. If you go this route, it is often recomended to drill a tiny hole at the end of the crack to prevent it from cracking further.

[George Willer]

Cast iron can be welded, but my understanding is that it requires an knowlegable person to do a good job. I also read a welding forum periodically, and they seem to feel with the correct rods,welder, and technique, it is fairly simple. Maybe check there for tips.

http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/for ... ay.php?f=4



Here is another info page about welding cast iron:

http://www.locknstitch.com/CastIronWelding.htm



Another stop gap measure that I've heard is to repair the crack with JB Weld. You would need to clean and degrease the area very well to get it to stick. But this is just to stop the oil leak, it does not address the issue of diminshed strength in that area of the casting. If you go this route, it is often recomended to drill a tiny hole at the end of the crack to prevent it from cracking further.

I read the pages with interest and could find nothing at all credible that would lead one to believe these guys could weld cast iron that is loaded in tension, such as this problem area of the blocks is. That's the problem here... Welders who think they can defeat the way the disolved carbon in the iron behaves in the boundary area adjacent to the weld. I don't think they can. Any successful repair in this area will need a lot of external reinforcement.

[Bigdog]

--------------------CHECK HERE---------------
http://www.cleancomputes.com/Cub/Sketch ... Repair.jpg
--------OR CALL LOMBARD-------1-803-359-6393------

[ChickenWing]

I agree that external reinforcement would be the only way to truly fix this problem. Maybe even needed for prevention, judging by the frequency of this break. It would be hard to expect a weld to do the job that the original cast fails at so often.

It cant hurt to research some of the techniques, in any case. If your only other option is replacement, you might as well give it a shot. Worst case, you'll still end up with a broken block in the end.