Welding Tips and Tricks

One of the guys asked me to repair this aluminium manifold. Porosity in the the two round bits. Any recommendations?

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Just spoke with Safari, the foundry that cast these no longer exists so no record of grade available.
I take it that the foundry was a very small operation.

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How thick is the casting roughly?

Also what's the end weld appearance required to be? Is it a make it work repair or a make it work and be pretty like it never happened kind of job?

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I recon about 4mm 3/16" at the raised round part.
Only needs to be repaired to work. I had it in mind to run a bead around the perimeter to give me something to work off in case the casting is hollow at the porosity and I blow a big hole there.
Only filler I keep is 5356.

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Could always cut a slug with a holesaw and weld that down over top of the circle should be less chance of blow through that way.

More than likely though can just weld over it by starting a bead outside and work it in.


I've only ever used 4043 on cast and never had a problem not sure how any other rod does. Perhaps someone else will know more about that.

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I just checked the chart, 5356 is not recommended for most 300 & 400 series casts , this manifold is likely to be one of them. Might have to get me some 4043.

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Well I suppose it's never a bad thing to have a pound or two of different fillers in the shop for someday down the road.



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Got it done, 4043, 3/32" wire & blue lanth, 150amps on the peddle. Cleaned it up, wire brushed, wiped then it turned nasty as expected. Had to flap it back and wipe three times to get on top of the sooty porosity. Don't know how pretty they really wanted it but this is what they're getting. Might scotchbrite.

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Well looks like you got the job done, and as far as castings go that's a pretty decent looking weld in my opinion.

Thanks. Customer was happy and paid up. Found out a bit more too, a restoration attempt was made on it by sandblasting which removed the thin film covering the porosity.
Bet they won't do that again.

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And look at that, nearly beer o'clock. Man am I gonna bash some blue cans down my neck with a 4x2 when I get home.

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Well that makes some more sense why it looked pretty new.

I love those jobs when the customer doesn't want to to give you the whole story then when it s all done you finally get it out of them what happened.


Cheers though on the blue ones [emoji106]

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