I have read the posts on heating the manifold and read the posts of pros and cons of dual carbs.
I made my choice to run duals on Offenhauser intake with water heat. I also made the choice to weld up the casting plugs
What I have not found in the searching of this great knowledge base contained here is A simple question. Do you remove the existing casting plug or not? I’m bring it to a welder and want to do any prep work.
When welding up the casting plugs, does one just remove the existing plug ? Tom Langdon’s website suggest one replace with 3/4” aluminum plug seems to indicate removal.
If removed, how? Suggestions?
Or does one lay the plug over existing plug and weld it in place?
Any help would be appreciated.
I always wondered, in a random rambling sort of way, why a fitting wasn’t used in each plug (after welding) to circulate the water
Why would you choose to do this? If there's some sort of porosity in the casting where the water passes through the manifold to heat it, it's junk. No amount of welding is going to fix that. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
It is not a problem with porosity but a problem with the casting plugs put in by Offenhauser, which have a propensity to leak when using hot water heat. Some people JB weld them shut, I prefer a permanent solution as suggested/highly recommended by Tom Langdon and others.
see picture as it is worth a few words if not a 1000
Thus, the question for those who may know: Do they remove the original plugs or lay over an aluminum plug/slug over the top of the existing casting plug and weld it in place? If people have done both, any thoughts on which is better? If removed, how hard and what is used to remove?
I don't want to f-up the manifold well getting it ready for the welder.
That's a complicated fix for for a simple problem, but that's what keeps welders in business, I guess. I'd just use a pipe tap to chase the threads and install good socket-head pipe plugs with PTFE (Teflon) pipe dope. That's probably too logical for people who like to do things the hard way. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
I am notorious for violating KISS principal and often get paralysis by analysis.
You gave a solution (thank you) to my random rambling in two ways: one giving a working solution but more importantly you reminded me of my tendencies mentioned in the beginning -- KISS and why reinvent the wheel if there is a good practical solution ....
Any who, now I am just wonder if people just welded a slug over the top or went the extra step of removing the existing plug -- darn, there is that analysis paralysis -- never the less anybody?
I have always just welded a little circle of aluminum over the sheet metal casting core plug. Easy work for an experienced TIG welder (which I am not). Last one I had done took less then 20 minutes to have done, including making the little circle patches and prep. I let the welder make the aluminum circles, that way he could pick the type of aluminum, as well as the thickness, he wanted to weld onto the casting.
