Grease Monkey Garage

[Sagebrush33]

Vortec heads are actually better...

Never played with em.

 

[Mastermind]

Traded the 462 double humps for a great cam kit. Trading is better than selling !!!!!

 

[rocketnorton]

Tell me more about this gas issue. I'm trying to learn to tig strainless.

+1
i like to think "good operator dont blame the machine"
sometimes it is the machine tho...
been havin probs on alum lately too

stainless is nice to work with, tig or stick

 

[Sagebrush33]

Tig and plasma slicer are definitely on my list to acquire. Have an old Miller MIG. It's a 3 phase machine but supposedly easy to convert to 220. Got it cheap. 200 amp with 100% duty cycle. Old girl's a monster. I'm just gonna get a digital phase converter so it'll get a clean signal. Had this discussion earlier in the thread, somewhere. Decided to go this route cause I have an 80gal 2 stage compressor on 3 phase also. It's brandy new and only cost me 8 bills.

 

[Mastermind]

Got the brakes sorted on the little Dakota. That was fun.

 

[Moparmyway]

Tell me more about this gas issue. I'm trying to learn to tig strainless.

+1
i like to think "good operator dont blame the machine"
sometimes it is the machine tho...
been havin probs on alum lately too

stainless is nice to work with, tig or stick

The difference between good shielding gas (pic #2) and not good shielding gas (pic #1) !




OK, into the weeds we go for those who want to hear what happened and my thoughts about it.
It's NOT going to be short !

Stainless needs a larger shielding area than most everything else, except titanium. Titanium needs the most !
Gas lenses use less shielding gas and have better coverage compared to standard collets, they use screens to restrict and straighten out flow.
Gas lenses allow MUCH longer tungsten stickout lengths
I normally run a gas lense and #8 cup, for just about everything at 20 cfh with pure argon.
They have these new clear pyrex cups now that allow you to see everything instead of the pink or white ceramic that tend to block some of the welders view
So, I ordered some of the newest & coolest larger cups clear stuff from Edge Welding for this stainless exhaust project I've saddled myself with and got started.
Get setup with a #12 cup, 25cfh of argon and start on the old headders, grinding off the old 3 bolt flanges
Had to play with the pulse settings and kept getting tungsten contamination while the weld would have little pockets of fireworks. I thought it was because I didnt prep the welds (pic #3)

My good friend comes over, it's 102 deg F OAT, we play around with some of the equipment in the barn and get ready to tig weld some aluminum, its time for him to try this Dynasty
He tries to light off with my setup, and tells me "something is wrong ...... acts like no shielding gas"
I turn up the argon to 30cfh, same thing, 35 cfh, same thing .............. now we start futzin with the Dynasty settings, as I've not even used AC with it yet.
I've welded everything AC with the Synchrowave up untill today, never had the occasion to try what the Dynasty was really made for - AC
Fast forward, because we're burning ALOT of time futzing around.
He goes home, gets his argon, and a few other things, swap tanks, give it a try ............ same thing. OK, its NOT contaminated argon
He swaps on his cup and swithces from LaZr tungsten (what I run) to pure tungsten, lights up and hes welding like butter. We drop the shielding gas back down to under 20cfh, perfect !!!
Take a little more time playing with the aluminum, then we do the most important part of the day, relax with a cold one or two and shoot our thoughts on what had happened, and life in general.

Now, I've got a mission : I absolutely HAVE to figure out WHY this happened.
He leaves me a couple of pieces of aluminum to play with, first thing I do is put on my #8 pink cup, switch back to LaZr tungsten, works great
Swap cups for the clear #12 and instant crap ...... now I've got an answer.
Do a little research and the clear manufacturers reccommend DC only .......... so I figure the clear just cant do its job on AC, mission complete

EXCEPT

My good friend lays a quiet little comment on me a day or two later ........... he tells me that my stainless welds look cooked and throws a picture at me of a crank he welded with stainless
I see rainbow colors and nice wetted out edges. He quips "proper shielding gas"
Now I'm losin sleep ! He's a good welder indeed, but am I really that bad ?? Why arent my welds rainbow lookin ?? What am I doing wrong ????
He already answered those questions for me ............. "proper shielding gas"
I start looking over everything with a fine tooth comb and I see that my #12 cup doesnt have a diffuser in it. Yup, no screens.
I slap a diffuser in it and get rainbows on my stainless, liquid butter on the aluminum ............ no issues whatsoever !!!

Now I challenge myself, time to weld the female v-band flange half to the UltraFlow stainless muffler. This muffler was stainless mig welded at the factory, as you can see in pic #2, just to the left of the rainbow tig weld

I light off, no prep, and produce the weld you see, rainbow and all.

Any gas gas lense, especially #10 and up NEEDS a diffuser. #8 and down are tapered and can benefit from a diffuser, but you can get away without one. The gas lense has a diffuser in it, but if the cup doesnt taper down to the opening, efforts to slow and straighten out the flow of shielding gas are needed !!

To top it all off, my good friend lays another one on me, says he welds with like 10cfh of argon with a #8 cup on ALUMINUM ..........
Says he's frugal and drops argon down to like 6 or 7 cfh with mild or carbon steel .................

I will be turning down my argon flow AFTER my little stainless project is finished

There .............. story, thoughts, and ramble over.
Hope it helps someone.

 

[Sagebrush33]

Something new to learn. Everyday.

 

[Stevetheboatguy]

The difference between good shielding gas (pic #2) and not good shielding gas (pic #1) !


View attachment 344965 View attachment 344966View attachment 344968

OK, into the weeds we go for those who want to hear what happened and my thoughts about it.
It's NOT going to be short !

Stainless needs a larger shielding area than most everything else, except titanium. Titanium needs the most !
Gas lenses use less shielding gas and have better coverage compared to standard collets, they use screens to restrict and straighten out flow.
Gas lenses allow MUCH longer tungsten stickout lengths
I normally run a gas lense and #8 cup, for just about everything at 20 cfh with pure argon.
They have these new clear pyrex cups now that allow you to see everything instead of the pink or white ceramic that tend to block some of the welders view
So, I ordered some of the newest & coolest larger cups clear stuff from Edge Welding for this stainless exhaust project I've saddled myself with and got started.
Get setup with a #12 cup, 25cfh of argon and start on the old headders, grinding off the old 3 bolt flanges
Had to play with the pulse settings and kept getting tungsten contamination while the weld would have little pockets of fireworks. I thought it was because I didnt prep the welds (pic #3)

My good friend comes over, it's 102 deg F OAT, we play around with some of the equipment in the barn and get ready to tig weld some aluminum, its time for him to try this Dynasty
He tries to light off with my setup, and tells me "something is wrong ...... acts like no shielding gas"
I turn up the argon to 30cfh, same thing, 35 cfh, same thing .............. now we start futzin with the Dynasty settings, as I've not even used AC with it yet.
I've welded everything AC with the Synchrowave up untill today, never had the occasion to try what the Dynasty was really made for - AC
Fast forward, because we're burning ALOT of time futzing around.
He goes home, gets his argon, and a few other things, swap tanks, give it a try ............ same thing. OK, its NOT contaminated argon
He swaps on his cup and swithces from LaZr tungsten (what I run) to pure tungsten, lights up and hes welding like butter. We drop the shielding gas back down to under 20cfh, perfect !!!
Take a little more time playing with the aluminum, then we do the most important part of the day, relax with a cold one or two and shoot our thoughts on what had happened, and life in general.

Now, I've got a mission : I absolutely HAVE to figure out WHY this happened.
He leaves me a couple of pieces of aluminum to play with, first thing I do is put on my #8 pink cup, switch back to LaZr tungsten, works great
Swap cups for the clear #12 and instant crap ...... now I've got an answer.
Do a little research and the clear manufacturers reccommend DC only .......... so I figure the clear just cant do its job on AC, mission complete

EXCEPT

My good friend lays a quiet little comment on me a day or two later ........... he tells me that my stainless welds look cooked and throws a picture at me of a crank he welded with stainless
I see rainbow colors and nice wetted out edges. He quips "proper shielding gas"
Now I'm losin sleep ! He's a good welder indeed, but am I really that bad ?? Why arent my welds rainbow lookin ?? What am I doing wrong ????
He already answered those questions for me ............. "proper shielding gas"
I start looking over everything with a fine tooth comb and I see that my #12 cup doesnt have a diffuser in it. Yup, no screens.
I slap a diffuser in it and get rainbows on my stainless, liquid butter on the aluminum ............ no issues whatsoever !!!

Now I challenge myself, time to weld the female v-band flange half to the UltraFlow stainless muffler. This muffler was stainless mig welded at the factory, as you can see in pic #2, just to the left of the rainbow tig weld

I light off, no prep, and produce the weld you see, rainbow and all.

Any gas gas lense, especially #10 and up NEEDS a diffuser. #8 and down are tapered and can benefit from a diffuser, but you can get away without one. The gas lense has a diffuser in it, but if the cup doesnt taper down to the opening, efforts to slow and straighten out the flow of shielding gas are needed !!

To top it all off, my good friend lays another one on me, says he welds with like 10cfh of argon with a #8 cup on ALUMINUM ..........
Says he's frugal and drops argon down to like 6 or 7 cfh with mild or carbon steel .................

I will be turning down my argon flow AFTER my little stainless project is finished

There .............. story, thoughts, and ramble over.
Hope it helps someone.

Ask your friend if he's ever used helium as a shielding gas. A good friend of mine swears by it. All he welds is s.s. pipe and s.s. plate for different food processing facilities.



Steven

 

[timg]

Something new to learn. Everyday.

When you quit learning time to take the boots off and sit on the couch. In my sixties now and still learning. Thx. for the indepth explanation @Moparmyway. I'm no welder but diffusors are an important piece in my world of mass air flow sensors in equipment.

 

[Steve]

When you quit learning time to take the boots off and sit on the couch. In my sixties now and still learning. Thx. for the indepth explanation @Moparmyway. I'm no welder but diffusors are an important piece in my world of mass air flow sensors in equipment.

Amazing how a mis-installed air filter can cause all sorts of running problems.

 

[Sagebrush33]

time to take the boots off and sit on the couch.

I learn a lot from that sometimes. LOL
The internet can be a wonderful tool.

 

[Sagebrush33]

I did nothing more with the smashed up truck today, but I did mess with the 1 ton dump. I put the batteries from the pick up in it and it fired right up. I knew it needed trans fluid so I bought some a couple days ago. Had problems when we moved here almost 2 yrs ago. It was dry, I put in a bunch of quarts, it moved and went dry again. The rear brake line popped. I disconnected it from the master and I stuck an 8 penny nail in the line. Screwed it back in sealing it off. Obtained good front brakes but couldn't keep fluid in the trans. I figured it was a line but gave up and had it towed. Cost me $250 with the v-plow on the front for about 15 miles.

Today I added 3qrts. Looked underneath and saw nothing leaking, dripping or spraying. The tail of the trans is a bit wet where it meets the T-case. I saw nothing leaking from there though. Front is dry at the inspection cover and the pan is dry too. Checked as much of the cooling lines as I could see it all looked dry. One would think, the lines being pressurized, it would be spraying pretty good. Put 3 more qrts in and cycled through the gears. I felt it engage and drove it back and forth 3' each. Shut it down and went in the house for a bit. Came back out, fired it up and checked the dipstick. Bone dry again. No fresh oil soaked spots in the gravel.
WTF. I just can't catch a break.

 

[Steve]

I did nothing more with the smashed up truck today, but I did mess with the 1 ton dump. I put the batteries from the pick up in it and it fired right up. I knew it needed trans fluid so I bought some a couple days ago. Had problems when we moved here almost 2 yrs ago. It was dry, I put in a bunch of quarts, it moved and went dry again. The rear brake line popped. I disconnected it from the master and I stuck an 8 penny nail in the line. Screwed it back in sealing it off. Obtained good front brakes but couldn't keep fluid in the trans. I figured it was a line but gave up and had it towed. Cost me $250 with the v-plow on the front for about 15 miles.

Today I added 3qrts. Looked underneath and saw nothing leaking, dripping or spraying. The tail of the trans is a bit wet where it meets the T-case. I saw nothing leaking from there though. Front is dry at the inspection cover and the pan is dry too. Checked as much of the cooling lines as I could see it all looked dry. One would think, the lines being pressurized, it would be spraying pretty good. Put 3 more qrts in and cycled through the gears. I felt it engage and drove it back and forth 3' each. Shut it down and went in the house for a bit. Came back out, fired it up and checked the dipstick. Bone dry again. No fresh oil soaked spots in the gravel.
WTF. I just can't catch a break.

It's either in the transfer case or the radiator now!

 

[dall]

It's either in the transfer case or the radiator now!

lol betting radiator

 

[Sagebrush33]

It's either in the transfer case or the radiator now!

Yea I thought about the radiator and kept an eye on the plastic over flow. It stayed the same level. I am aware these 90s fords lube the t-case with the trans fluid. Like i said, there is some seepage where they join, but nothing that warrants misplacing over a gallon of fluid. How much do they hold combined?

 

[Steve]

Yea I thought about the radiator and kept an eye on the plastic over flow. It stayed the same level. I am aware these 90s fords lube the t-case with the trans fluid. Like i said, there is some seepage where they join, but nothing that warrants misplacing over a gallon of fluid. How much do they hold combined?

They are separate sumps but if the seal fails then the transmission dumps it into the transfer case. Check the level in the transfer case, just be prepared for it to gush out if it's overfull!


I don't know the capacities off the top of my head but I can check tomorrow. What's the year, make, model?

 

[Sagebrush33]

lol betting radiator

Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the rad cooler was bypassed and it's auxiliary cooler only at this point.

What's the year, make, model?

97 ford F350 cab and chassis. E4OD, and BW t-case.

dall please save the ford cracks for now LOL

 

[dall]

Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the rad cooler was bypassed and it's auxiliary cooler only at this point.


97 ford F350 cab and chassis. E4OD, and BW t-case.

dall please save the ford cracks for now LOL

so dodge pictures are ok ?lol

 

[Sagebrush33]

so dodge pictures are ok ?lol

I like SOME of those too. I love the I6 Cummins. I like SOME Chevy/GMCs
I am not largely brand biased. There's a rotten apple in every bushel, they all rust in the right conditions, and they all come to leak at some point.

 

[timg]

Just a quick one. Is the hyd dump pump trans driven? Could it be transferring into the hyd tank for body? Surely if it was in radiator cooler it would be shoving out overflow bottle right?