failure analysis team......

[geonc]

...Why would it burst after running for 3 days....with no signs of seepage or leaking

The welded coolant passage was far enough away from the oil passage and we even used 2 large pieces of cast iron to absorb any renegade heat along with bolting to flat steel

With the coolant passage only cracked and not in 2 seperate pieces {like the oil passage} after drilling small relief holes at the ends of the crack it was bolted to a piece of flat steel prior to tig welding.
After the weld cooled and the steel was removed, I used a sharpie to ink the flange and moved a flat file across to check flatness...we were cool!

Even when installed on the eng, it aligned sweet and true with the front oil cooler header...

......

 

[sle2115]

My only guess would relate to something we found when welding cracked aluminum heads. We found that by not preheating and slowly cooling, while our repair generally held, other parts of the head, usually close but not touching the weld became brittle. After welding our first few heads, when we took them to the valve work bench, we found several weird things such as when pulling the hardened seats, even if in a different hole than where we repaired the head (crack ground out and repaired in cylinder one, valve seat bad in cylinder 2) that the seats would kind of tear (best word to describe it) the aluminum pocket where the seat was. At any rate, the head became brittle in places other than where it was welded. Using the preheat and slow cool method (we would often put the head back in the oven multiple times before getting it completely welded so it didn't cool too much) things went much better and there appeared to be no brittle spots. Might be a similar situation.

 

[sassyrel]

george--someones got to have a usaed good front cover--or the part that broke--as he said--imbrittlement--bad as sounds--find a used one--maybe that was defective from the factory-and finally broke for you--

 

[geonc]

george--someones got to have a usaed good front cover--or the part that broke--as he said--imbrittlement--bad as sounds--find a used one--maybe that was defective from the factory-and finally broke for you--

We are past getting a new cover ...thanks to Rich


Now I just have pick up tube location issues ...see my other threads in this section.......

 

[94f450sd]

We are past getting a new cover ...thanks to Rich


Now I just have pick up tube location issues ...see my other threads in this section.......

we are past the tube issues also.i just need to know what you want to do about the oil pan issue.cuz if you wanna swap the pan i will send the tube and the pan at the same time.

 

[NJKen]

There is only a few things likely to cause that and I dont think you did most of em. That looks likei t could be caused by fereign material betwen the flange, overtorquing, or just a beat casting. Why did the other crack you welded in the timing cover start from? No obvious cause for that either. Just chalk it up to a crapy casting. When Sue and I come down in October we will blow the old cover to hell while we enjoy a frosty cold adult beverage
Ken