Brad W

getting ready

Jim M.

Brad, you da man!

Take lots of pictures.

dr bob

Most important piece of equipment in that picture is undoubtedly the air conditioner.

tailpipe

If your welding that yourself make sure your all covered up, the UV from tig welding aluminum will sunburn you in seconds

dr bob

The phrase "caught red-handed" is about careless TIG welders.

Brad W

we live in texas. Hell I am going to do it in the nude. Don't want any tan lines...........

jleidel

sweet!! i can't begin to explain how much i groveling i owe brad, john, sean and roger.

dr bob

Hey!! You spoiled my cocktail hour!


Roger-- Tonight we are sampling an excellent mid-coastal Pinot Noir. Swing by for a sip if you have a chance.

Lizard928

I am guilty of TIG welding with uncovered arms.

Luckily for me it was short duration (5 min or so), and I simply do NOT sun burn on my arms, neck or head.
Worked in the chihuahua desert for months with no shade, hat etc. and didnt burn at all. I did however become very dark....

6mil928

Fingers crossed!

jleidel

I wanted to update the thread with a bit of progress. Thanks to the efforts of Brad, Sean, John and Roger while I was out of town, the block was cleaned, patched and welded. The bad piece on the existing girdle was cut clean in order to make room for a piece from a spare girdle. Thanks to Roger, we had a spare girdle to cut a good corner piece, including the mounting points for both the AC unit and the alternator. Brad had everything jigged up in order to make sure things were square and the gasket surface was flush. Everything was welded while on the car.

Last night, we cleaned and pookied the welded areas as well as the rod bearings. A new silicone pan gasket and stud kit were installed with the existing pan and a new set of motor mounts[parts thanks to Roger at 928sRUS]. We also got the harmonic balancer, alternator, ac compressor and tb guards back on. Next step is to press in the new rack bushings and button up the bottom end.

Once we can set the engine back on the mounts, we'll put in a full change of oil, spin up the engine VERY briefly, then drain the oil and change the filter. We want to make sure and get out all the little aluminum chips. Needless to say, I'm smiling ear to ear!!!

Just a quick thanks to everyone involved in the repair so far... especially BradW!!

So.... pictures!!! If you're interested in all the pictures, they're posted here: http://www.renntube.com/view-album/21/s4-block-repair

Fogey1

Were I thou, I'd spin that engine, plugs out, with the starter 'til the oil light goes out. Minimal stress on the tight parts.

I wonder if you could leave the pan off, plumb the pickup into a bucket of clean oil, spin it and let the return make a mess into a plastic sheet? Or even plumb a pump to the pickup and and pump a bunch of solvent/kerosene through the engine without spinning it? I guess the oil pump would act like a dam if you tried that. Pump it in through the oil filter mount?

tailpipe

its only aluminum it wont hurt the gears in the pump the filter will grab all the bits i would run the engine leave the oil and change the filter in a day then dump the oil and filter in a couple days

Dave928S

Nice result.

Tom in Austin

Flat amazing ... real talent there ...