The head is looking good. What kind of pump are you going to use to move the water? I have been wanting to go water cooled myself, just haven't gotten around to it. Show more pics please as you go along. Thanks Billy

I found the pipe at a local machine shop. They got lots of aluminum.
As for the copper washers I was thinking about drilling two small holes (1 at the top and 1 on bottom)
of each head stud tube. I was thinking this because if water gets by the nut and down the tube for
the stud this will cause a lot of pressure when the water boils, in effect a pressure cooker and it will
blow the head gasket. I need to do some more thinking on this but I sure like the copper washer as
another idea.

Oh shit I used the word pressure cooker. Now I am gona be on the FBI most wanted list.

And on the no fly list now the NSA will target PilotOdyssey.com and read all our private messages haha

Almost there, the pieces are tack welded together. Gona weld it tomorrow if I can get a block of ice.
I am going to use ice because I don't want to warp the head. After a few tack welds it got real hot.
Also some have suggested preheating but the welds seem to be ok with out it.
In the first photo here you will notice a divider. I put this divider in to force the water to flow around
the head before it exits.

I personally don't see the piece of ice Being necessary
plus when its Steams off it might put porosity into the weld
just Stitch weld and let it cool and then finish welding

and if the divider doesn't work you got plenty of other holes to choose from lol

The divider...I was wondering what you were gonna' do to keep the flow from making a B-line from inlet to outlet.

The warping...could be why some designs have more of an "assembled" construction rather than welded. Otherwise it may need machined true after the full weld. Not sure about aluminum, but if you heat & cool it too fast, you can get embrittlement and/or cracks.

Yup I would preheat it and weld as normal then machine once done to ensure the gasket surface was still flat, this thing will see hundreds of heat cycles and will be flexing all the time so you don't want the surfaces to be brittle.

Is the sooty flame Speedchaser talked about to keep the metals soft to reduce cracking and stress riser during the weld process?

None of the liquid cooled heads I have seen have dividers inside water in is located on the intake side of the head where the water is normally cooler because of less heat then the outlet is located on the exhaust side of the head where its normally hotter, convection by the laws of thermodynamics knows how to make that water flow.

I agree, skip the ice.

Thinner wall tubing would probably have worked, less heat to weld?

Looks good.

Might want to double check with some aluminum gurus, but...

Personally, I would put it on top of sand when welding

Once it's heated, it's heated...rapid cooling might be worse

I would think you would want to minimize the hear cycling

There's special putty you can use as a heat soak also

I think no mattr what your going to want to redeck the head

Great work

I have done some amount of alumininum TIG work, using a used cast piece can be a real bear to get to clean the bead as your welding. May need to go over that spot with the torch a few different times to get it all burned out.

I don't know that sand will do a whole lot to prevent warping.

its more useful for cooling cast iron parts you weld to slow down the cool rate and prevent cracking.

Other way is to preheat in the oven, weld and then stick in the welder with the temp off and let the whole thing cool off slowly over time. Again that's cast iron.

If you had a junk jug, your best bet for reducing warpage mgiht be to bolt the sucker down. Big heat sink and holding power for the surface.

No way to keep it perfectly straight, still will need some lapping (sandpaper on a piece of glass) or may need a mill or surface grinder to get it flatter if its a big warp.

Well it looks like the jury is in. NO ice. If the head warps I will redeck. I have a milling machine.
I don't want to get my compression to high because I don't wana run race gas.
I think I might try the stitch weld or bolt down thing. As for the divider I did that because I am going to run a pump. Also the Engine on a fl350 has the head angled down at the front and since hot water rises I was gona pull from the intake side and exit on the intake side opposite the divider. You can see in the photos where I have the hose ends -- the divider is in between the two.

Question: when this is all done would you guys cut off the extra around the head or leave it??
More heat dissipation if I leave it? Or just cut it off??

I would cut it off

But that's me for cosmetic reasons

That should be enough cooling if it's not there's something else wrong

I am going to water cool the cylinder too.
Looks like it will be easy to do, easier than the head anyway.
But I will start a new thread for that.

I would leave the excess plate...great spot to cook ya hotdogs,or Gaz'z Elk.

Gonna leave any threaded holes for temp gauge?

See if you can match-up a suitable car type plug boot,the long,shrouded ones they use on plug recessed motas,like Mitsubishi Magna etc.
Will keep the sand/crap outa ya plug hole.Will be easier to mod the plug hole ID before it's all finished/assembled?

Can you use the same diameter tube for the cylinder? If yes then definately cut the excess off. That would look cool.

Here's one quick Example.
Also might be good idea to build in a ridge for boot,and it would be a dirt barrier.

Another-KTM 350 has a nice boot,great pics here:

http://www.omraoffroad.com/forum/viewto ... 40&t=12263" ."..

2012 KTM 350

our welder at work has told me about the torching the aluminun and burning the black off. when the black is burnt off its at the right temp for welding

I was gona use one of the holes for a temp probe and was gona just stuff a rag next to plug to keep
sand n crap out but I like the ideas presented here better. Gona do the sealed plug boot option.
Just finished welding the head. Maybe cut the extra off later tonight.
Yes I can use the same size pipe for the cylinder job and that will be done next week when I get back
home from work. Will start a new thread and pics for that.

Do you have any dieletric grease? It's non conductive,used on joins,terminals,flattery posts etc.
I would smear some down into the hole walls,and around plug boot.
Not only making extraction and insertion easier,but will catch any rampant sand grains etc,from entering your HEAD!

Well she is done. God is she ugly. I wiped all my DNA off. She ain't mine.
But I guess even ugly girls have their uses.

Also notice the first picture. There are two burn marks on the head gasket. I did this while welding.
Ground wasn't very good. lucky for me no damage underneath and lucky head gasket was still
stuck on. Moral of the story --- be careful when welding.

Synopsis of welding oddy heads: When I tried some test welds on the fins I had knocked off I had a lot
of trouble with the weld. Lots of porosity. I had very little issue when welding the added pieces on the head it self. Very little porosity that I noticed while welding the head and added pieces. All I can think of is that the fins were small pieces by them self and probably got real hot fast and cause the metal to bubble and boil instead of just melt. Also by adding the pieces to the head it was similar to adding extra filler metal and also more heat sink. Just a guess.

Looks good. May not be the prettiest out there but if it functions.. you wont care how it looks.