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How To Check Aluminum Cylinder Head For Cracks And Serials And Keys
The cylinder head, used in combination with a head gasket seals the cylinders of the engine. In the case of minor cylinder head cracking, the cylinders may lose compression and misfire. Major cracks can cause severe damage to the cylinders of the engine. Jun 14, 2012 DIY Head Cleaning, crack detection suggestion. Magnaflux is used on iron heads the dye penetrate on aluminum heads though the dye penetrate will work on both.Some heads have a pipe plug instead of freeze plugs.in any case clean the coolant passages as I am convinced the coolant passages can be plugged in some cases leading to overheat. How to check that cylinder head is OK. Info how to check damages, cracks, holes, valves and cylinder head straightness. If your looking for a cracked head it can not be done on the block, to many other things it could be. If you have it off the best thing to do is spend the money and send it to a machine shop where they can pressure test it.
Cylinder Head Inspection Cylinder heads must be cleaned before any crack detection can be done. Cast iron heads are cleaned in a hot tank with a caustic solution. Aluminum heads are more delicate and are best cleaned with an appropriate degreaser and a small brush. Magnetic particle inspection or Magnafluxing® is the process used with ferrous or iron cylinder heads. A magnetic field is created using a permanent magnet, cables, probes etc., while fine magnetic particles are applied to the surface. A flux is created in any flaw or crack in the head, and there the fine particles will gather, showing any cracks missed during a visual inspection. Aluminum heads are checked using a dye that penetrates into any cracks in the cylinder head.
The head surface is cleaned and the dye is sprayed on and left for about 5 minutes. The surface is then wiped with clean shop rags and a developer is applied.
Any cracks will show up as red lines. Pressure testing is done in a tank of water.
All ports and passages are covered with plates and inserts. About 30 psi. Or 3 times coolant system pressure is applied.
Any cracks will appear as tiny bubbles in the water. Use a feeler gauge and a straight edge to check for warpage. Cylinder heads will bow in the middle when overheated. Always check manufacturer’s specifications for allowable clearances.
As Madam-XY said, preheat! This not only helps stabilize the casting but it helps bake out 'some' im-purities. Another thing I do with cast aluminum is start slowly adding heat with my torch, never allowing the alum to become molten and as You do this You will see some of it cleaning (turning white) and some im-purities, usuallly just small specs of black or dis-colored lines after doing this for just a short while, stop. Then wire brush as much of the trash out as You can. This is the high freq. Cleaning action. Repeat and repeat until the area to be welded is all clean then slowly add more heat until You get a puddle and get after it, lol.
I like using 5356 rod but others will have other possibly better ways.??? If this is Your first attempt at welding cast aluminum You are going to learn first hand just how crappy of a material it is!
I have a friend of mine or I should say a good aquatance that does this specialty work, they make special torches to reach up inside the aluminum heads with a clear pyrex cup and use use a short pc of tungsten. Depending on how deep inside the head you need to go. Its a tuff job.
As far as cleaning, just as one of the other guys said, clean clean clean. On dirty aluminum I will go over it after I have it all vee grooved about 2-3 times cleaning the impurities that float to the top then grinding and wire brushing.
Once I get it to the point where there is no contamination that floats to the top then I will grab the filler metal and begin to weld. Note when I said to grind I meant with a carbide cutter not a disc because a disk will leave impurities behind. If you live near michigan I can get my friends # for you to repair the head.
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He does the heads and engine blocks for people like Roush racing, Kenny Bernsteen, Ms budweiser. On occassion when I come across some of the more difficult things I take them to him.
As far as heating the whole head up, I never noticed a heater of any type for heating the heads, Im pretty sure he starts out cold. When I say he's kind of an expert I mean he gets a pallet of heads at a time. Cgustafs, a question. What engine is this {evo,shovel,Etc**? I just rebuilt intake valve guides on a pair shovel heads yesterday and it was a little on the tight side for a wp 20 torch.
The exhaust side is even tighter. With a gas lense and around 16 cfh on the flow meter you may be able to get the tungsten down in there. If you have to feed the filler thru the port, that's what you'll have to do, sometimes that happens.
![Serials Serials](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/86/Vega_140_engine.jpg/280px-Vega_140_engine.jpg)
I'd set the balance between 68-72 and the hz to 80-90. I don't think with that small of a head you would need to pre-heat, although you will be setting the machine probably close to the max {all 200 amps**. I had to do something similar for another customer that wanted me to fill in an area in the fins so he could install a de-compression valve. That tungsten was sticking out more that an inch and man was it glowing. I also did some research on this by welding cast aluminum for many years. I tried what the mfgs.
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Suggested and experimented with different alloys. When welding in a cast alum. Air cooled head, structural integrity is rarely an issue, getting some filler that is user friendly is.
Basically all it has to do is be sound enough to not crack or something crazy like that. I haven't seen any 4043 or 5356 give problems if done correctly. The most noteworthy finding I came across is to not waste my time or money on Harris Welco alum. Filler rod, it is the most in-consistent I know of, and seems to be made everywhere but America.