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Posted by ChrisHin Wash. St [67.142.167.26] on Saturday, June 09, 2012 at 15:52:43 :
In Reply to: 1928 REO Head needed posted by RyanNJ [68.63.169.217] on Saturday, June 09, 2012 at 12:40:59 :
I agree with Dave, it CAN be fixed. Find the oldest welder you can, one who was raised with this stuff and give it to him to fix, simple, done deal.
I used to do that way back when, when people still did that sort of thing, when we rebuilt everything. Parts stores sold the parts to rebuild almost anything back then, generator bushings, water pump parts, distributer parts, etc. We used to re-babbit bearing surfaces, rods etc.
Your head can be repaired thru various welding methods but also we used to sometimes repair them by drilling a hole at the end of the crack, then tap the hole to accept a soft steel plug, thread the plug into the hole and then peen the cracks tightly shut forcing the metal of both sides of the crack into each other, the plug and the metal around it are also peened together, basically you are forcing the two sides and the two metals together so tightly that it is in effect a sort of "cold weld". At any rate the space left between the molecules of the iron are so small that neither compression, water or gophers can get through it. If you take your time and do it correctly you can hardly tell by looking that it was ever repaired, especially after some usage. It should work fine for your application. It worked fine for daily drivers and if nothing else, it is a repair that was common when that vehicle was common, a "period correct" repair.
You can use the hole at the end of cracks to stop the cracks dead in their place on fenders and other sheet metal also until you may someday wish to fix them. The difference is you just drill the hole at the end of the crack, that's all, no plug, nothing. Try it , you will be happy with your repair. But be careful, people will come from all over wanting you to fix their "impossible" jobs.