Welding Tips and Tricks

The twin turbo install I am doing requires a lot of exhaust fabricating. I have a tig welder that is also a plasma cutter. Can I use a thin steel welding wire on stainless steel? What gas mix should I use?

Are you wanting to tig or mig this stuff???
You posted twice.

If your looking at post subjects.

You can get some 1/16 or 3/32 308L tig rods (which ever your more comfortable with)

Gas will be 100% argon.

Let us know what your thinking,
~John

Wanted to get my question in the right place. mig and tig were different questions.

On stainless exhaust I usually use tig and a really small tig rod like .035" to .045",I find smaller wire to take much less heat than larger rods, the trade off is you have to be pretty fast with your feed hand. Oh and use argon gas for both a shield and for the purge.

Thanx all for the tips.

If you use regular carbon steel tig rod on stainless, then the joint will no longer be stainless steel, and thus it will be rust prone, and it will rust. Then that contaminates the surrounding stainless steel and you might end up with a regular steel exhaust. Dont be cheap and just order 0.035 or 0.045 308L stainless steel tig rod. www.weldingsupply.com has good pricing, as does "fillermetalqueen" on Ebay. You can also use 308LSi, which has added silicon to help with puddle fluidity and wets out a tad bit more, and on the plus side, it is usually a tiny bit cheaper than regular 308L filler of the same size.

If any of these parts are on the "hot side" of the system, manifolds, cross over etc I'd recommend 347 filler....will take the heat much better then standard 308L filler.

kaboom10 wrote:The twin turbo install I am doing requires a lot of exhaust fabricating. I have a tig welder that is also a plasma cutter. Can I use a thin steel welding wire on stainless steel? What gas mix should I use?

Kaboom10,
For TIG welding your header, again depending on the composition, I would also recommend 308/308L. The 347 will in fact work and was intended for, if I remember, 321. I have a roll or .023 and .035 MIG wire that I use for TIG welding light SS parts. I believe anything over 1/16" will be to big for your application.
Gas on the TIG will be 100% Argon, as mentioned running 15-20 CFH depending on your set up and where you are in you joint configuration. Make sure you have your post-flow set again to protect your weld. Back purging will be required with argon and 15 CFH will be plenty.
I would highly advise you look into the purchase of ICEngineworks modeling blocks. These will save you ALOT of headache. They are not cheap, but neither is your time or SS.
http://www.summitracing.com/search/bran ... ngineworks
http://www.icengineworks.com/icewfeatures.htm
Food for thought.
-Jonathan

thanks Jonathan I forgot to mention that last night yes the 347 filler is intended for use with 321 stainless which I would suggest for a high end header otherwise 304 with 308l is the norm.

I guess it all depends what your building and your budget. The ICE clamps are very nice and will save you a lot of time with design.

Www.stainlessheaders.com has pretty good pricing on 321 www.coneeng.com has decent pricing and some good fab tools and articles that may help you as well.

I've done quite a few systems and parts if you need anything let me know if I can help

I would tig it alot cleaner plus if you going to Mig weld it you would need tri gas which is kinda expensive