Guy,
I understand where you are coming from wanting to keep the block looking original.
Good
That is different than keeping it operational in a field situation.
Says who,
Well apparently ME.
well you're wrong, it is operational, and it didn't require stripping or moving.
mine looks original and is 100% as operational as original, plus, in a field situation my repair was done on-site without the need to disassemble anything.
Likewise my patch idea would also not require the disassembly of anything/
just a lot of extra work cutting up an iron pan, which btw will be a different grade of cast iron anyway, and it will look like shit, eg obviously patched.
How about cutting a patch from the bottom of a flat bottom cast iron frying pan and using electric cast iron welding rod to install that?
What is this? Comedy central?
Not at all. I was deadly serious and I resent your tone. If I want a sheet of steel I don't make one by laying beads of welding rod next to each other. If I needed some sheet cast iron I wouldn't make it myself by laying down rows of far more expensive ni-rod.
did I build up a repair from deposited electrode?
no
is this straw man argument all you have?
That cast welding rod is really pricey as is electricity now and time moreso.
Cast rods cost about the same individually as cigarettes,
I think my cost is much more, and cigarettes aren't cheap BTW. Fortunately I dont need them.
electricity to do the job less than one cigarette,
electricity to weld with costs me about $10.00 CDN per hour with a gasoline powered welder. That adds up to expensive really fast.
I've got a major distro about 3 miles down the road, Stubs rods are 3 for a quid.
Electricity is a few pence per KWH
any way you slice it that's so cheap it isn't even worth calculating for a small welding job
and if time is money I should be quids in seeing as I didn't spend any time or money stripping, rebuilding, transporting or sourcing consumables and spares such as gaskets etc.
Im glad your method works so well for you, but at the same time I also question as T19 has, with your location where original Listers are plentiful compared to anywhere else in the world, why bother welding cast iron when undamaged parts can be had?
why bother repairing it at all, why not just scrap the whole engine and buy another one for 300 quid, why not, we live in a throwaway society.
the other extreme is why repair something properly, why not totally fuck it up by welding skillet iron, a completely different compound, in an ungly botched patch over the whole thing.
if the job is worth doing at all it is worth doing properly, I have the skills, experience and knowledge, and I have some modicum of pride in my work and duty owed to those who gave of their time to train me, to do the fucking job properly.
The repair I did has been looked at by two different coded welders, one of whom does the pipework at the nearby nuke facility "thought you said you couldn't weld" was his comment, high praise indeed from a taciturn bastard (hi tommy, if you're reading this)
Under a coat of primer you literally can't tell it ain't exactly the way it came out of dursley foundry, and seeing as I used the original pieces that broke away barring a minimal amount of deposited electrode it is original.
Yeah, I could probably find an undamaged original barrel, that would still mean strip and rebuild and new gaskets, it would also mean there is one less barrel in the world, and my engine would no longer be as original as it was, oops, there goes that run in piston and rings.
I take a pride in my work.