you might find it easier to weld if you preheat the cast aluminum, take you torch and just use the acetylene and start heating it up until its has a blacken finish to it, then turn on the oxygen and keep heating until the black soot is gone, that's when its nicely heated up. try welding that see if its any different

I was thinking using my electric oven set it up in the shop turn it on 250 degrees throw the cylinder in it weld when warm, will probably be doing these 2 at a time (doing a 350 and 250 currently) so one can be warming while the other is being welded.

Removed fins on the 250 cylinder and sand blasted the weld affected areas.

Welded up the holes on the top where the rubber dampeners were.

I cut fit and tacked up all the parts needed to make the water jacket then had the son weld it up for me.

Without the head, still need to machine that crack I welded up.

If you were using the round style head it would look like this installed, pretty much like you would think a stock cylinder without some of the cooling fins showing lol

Next to TurboTexas LC cylinder

Since I am setup to weld aluminum why not refurbish some of them damaged pistons like this one out of Odykids Pilot Engine that was run quite a while in this current condition but the piston is still usable.

Clean off the carbon



Sand blast the carbon out of the crater.



Weld it up all that is left is to machine the dome back down flush.



















.
Just kidding the piston is a paper weight just wanted to see how it would weld, took all of 185 amps for a long while to get it hot enough to take filler rod.

That cylinder looks great. It didn't take you long to get down down to business. Nice work.
What do you thing would happen if you tried a piston like that? Would the filler melt out? I'm trying to understand why it wouldn't work. Or is just not worth risking? Might be something to experiment with in something that's cheap "er" to rebuild.

I would venture to guess that welding on the top of the piston will change the molecular structure of the piston itself and that the welding rod material is not the same makeup as the piston itself. This would probably make the piston too soft on the top of the piston and it might shatter or melt. It might make the piston too brittle.

But I'm not a metallurgist so this is an educated guess. Or maybe just a WAG (wild ass guess)!

Rand

Hi Hoser, have you had a chance to work on this project?

Yes and no, I have a second cylinder ready to cut pieces and weld up but pulled off this project to take care of my MH dropped the gas tank to see what the problem was with intermittent gas flow and to paint the top of the tank since the factory paint (31 years old) was about gone and rust was setting in, got that done discovered a few other minor problems that need addressed.

Shifting my focus back on the 350 basket case need to finish and sell it to pay for some of the welder expenses lol, just need to add the second inlet to air box, paint the pipe, install belt guards, install skid plate should be ready for a new owner.

Any new updates ?

Hoser,
What Miller welder did you end up picking up? I saved my old cylinder just for a project like this. It needs a new sleeve, so its not so much of a waste.

why not leave the fins in the new case? DRILL holes thrue the top, so water circulates around the fins? then patch top hole then put the jacket aroud that?
More surface for the water to contact...

I remember talking about this with you long time ago... using a flat bar to weld around the cylinder! I like the functionality and ease of this...

May guess would be that the water flow would be more restricted and not cool as quick. Cutting the fins off allows more flow to get the heat away from the head.

You can do it that way the way I done it takes longer but with the fins out of the way you don't have to worry about circulation and don't need a water pump to force the water around, still more surface area is left since I cant remove 100% of the fins than inside a regular liquid cooled cylinder

Another issue you would run into would be the path of the water.

Water is going to take the least path of resistance. If you were to leave the fins in place you will wind up having pockets inside the cylinder jacket that will flow water quickly and other areas where the water will flow slowly or not at all. Hot and cold spots will form and uneven cylinder cooling would be the end result.

Rand