[Nomansland92]

Ok so here's a little back story, I'm pretty new to tig welding, about a year under my belt. I learned how to tig weld for performance automotive use. I started by making turbo manifolds and exhaust systems for personal use and thethe all turned out pretty good.

So now I'm on to the next project. I'm trying to join two separate cast aluminum oil pans to one. There are places where they do not meet up and I need to add filler metal. Other places they fit closely and I just want to weld the right together.

My questions

1) what type of aluminum sheet should I use to fill in the big areas. It would be nice for it to be able to form into place like 5052 but more importantly it needs to be Crack resistant. I don't think shear strength is a issue either it mostly needs to weld oil tight with no cracks. So would 6061 be better in the case?

2) what type of filler should I use where I'm welding straight cast to cast, and what type should I use going cast to the filler metal? I was thinking 4043 or 5356 possibly?

The pictures are not ready for welding there is more fit up to be done and pieces that need to be cut and moved, but you can get the idea.

[Rick_H]

Either filler will work, I tend to use 5056 with 5052 though...I'd choose 5052 due to its flexibility....

Get it clean as you can, once the heat hits an old oil pan it will come out of every pore, you can grind away and weld again over that section. The guys here turned me on to Blue Gold cleaner and I'm sold, works awesome.

Not sure what welder you have but crank it up over 200amps of you can, you'll need it.

[welding@60]

I agree clean is the answer I have repaired several cummins rock damanged pans old trick if you have access to a oxy acetylene torch lite torch leave oxygen off cover cleaned surfaces with carbon soot then turn ox on start pre heating until soot starts to loosen and come off pre heat helps boil dirt and oil out soot coming off shows you are not getting so hot as to melt aluminum you can do trial on some of the scrap pieces you already have lying around good luck

[Nomansland92]

Ok awesome thank you so much for the tips, I'm ha a miller syncrowave 210 invertor machine. I have have some scrap pieces around I'll give it a try with the tourch and see how it cleans up.

[GreinTime]

Are you making an RB26 swap pan?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[GreinTime]

Now I'm confused because it seems you are adding a provision for a front axle through the oil pan, which is backwards from most swapping an RB26 into a non R-Chassis.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[GreinTime]

Pardon the multiple responses all at once, I do realize that it may be something other than an RB, but turbo manifolds + oil pans with driveshaft/axle provisions = piqued interest to say the least.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Nomansland92]

^ nope but i would love to be doing a rb26 swap. The car is a 88" bmw 325ix with the m20 motor. The problem is that the stock front diff has very small spider gears they they tend to explode above 400ish awhp especially if you launch the car. So i got imported parts from a European 525ix(not available in the states) because they had much bigger and stronger differentials. So i thought it would be a great idea to put those under my car but as you can see it hasn't been a bolt on swap haha.

Heres the whole build thread so you can get idea of what I'm trying to do plus there's a bunch of turbo pics in there haha.
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthr ... 62&page=10

And i noticed your from Pittsburgh which is funny because SO AM I

Heres a crappy image but you can kinda see the manifold, it was a very tight fit.

[big gear head]

I would use 4043 due to the heat that the oil pan will see. Be sure that you have that pan bolted to a block before welding it or you will probably have a pan that will no longer fit anything.

[GreinTime]

^ nope but i would love to be doing a rb26 swap. The car is a 88" bmw 325ix with the m20 motor. The problem is that the stock front diff has very small spider gears they they tend to explode above 400ish awhp especially if you launch the car. So i got imported parts from a European 525ix(not available in the states) because they had much bigger and stronger differentials. So i thought it would be a great idea to put those under my car but as you can see it hasn't been a bolt on swap haha.

Heres the whole build thread so you can get idea of what I'm trying to do plus there's a bunch of turbo pics in there haha.
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthr ... 62&page=10

And i noticed your from Pittsburgh which is funny because SO AM I

Heres a crappy image but you can kinda see the manifold, it was a very tight fit.

I would assume you know Lester then if you are from Pittsburgh lol.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Nomansland92]

^ nope but i would love to be doing a rb26 swap. The car is a 88" bmw 325ix with the m20 motor. The problem is that the stock front diff has very small spider gears they they tend to explode above 400ish awhp especially if you launch the car. So i got imported parts from a European 525ix(not available in the states) because they had much bigger and stronger differentials. So i thought it would be a great idea to put those under my car but as you can see it hasn't been a bolt on swap haha.

Heres the whole build thread so you can get idea of what I'm trying to do plus there's a bunch of turbo pics in there haha.
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthr ... 62&page=10

And i noticed your from Pittsburgh which is funny because SO AM I

Heres a crappy image but you can kinda see the manifold, it was a very tight fit.

I would assume you know Lester then if you are from Pittsburgh lol.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Hmmm can't say I've heard of him.

[GreinTime]

He is also an E30 fanatic which is why I made the assumption lol. If it makes you feel better, he doesn't know you/your car either!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Nomansland92]

He is also an E30 fanatic which is why I made the assumption lol. If it makes you feel better, he doesn't know you/your car either!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Maybe I'll see him around at some car shows, my car is hard to miss, white e30 with a front plate that says "parts car"
What does his e30 look like? I've probably seen it around.

[GreinTime]

His is orange/red with an S50 swap.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk