Soooooo.... pull of the ole highly ported 14b from Goat's Bane, and what do I see? Several large cracks staring back at me. Not just the little one's you normally find around the wastegate.... oh, no... huge monsters that go all the way throught this thing. Not only that, but this thing has been over-ported beyond the opening in the gaskets: recipe for air turbulence and trouble if you ask me.

Now, since cast iron can't be welded, I turn to chemical options. The best epoxy to be found was rated to 300 degrees, JB Weld was rated to 600. Not too bad, but I wanted something better. So I found a solution from Columbiacoatings.com that's right up my alley (waaaaay up my alley, if you know what I mean ) It's called high-temp LabMetal. Can be drilled, tapped, all that good stuff. Also heat rated to 1000+F. Perfect for my 14b. So can you smell what the Goat's cookin'? Thought I would share. Pics and full report to come.

I've got a spare turbine housing if you'd rather start from scratch...

I see EGT readings on my EGT gauge of 1500*
Thats a little more than the 1000* rating of the "glue".
Id start with a new housing instead of chancing it coming off and going through the turbine and chewing things up.

since when cant ya weld cast iron?

That's something that I was thinking about. The EGT is a measurement of the air's temperature, not necessarily what the manifold itself is reaching, so there's some variance there. Also consider the slight heat shielding that the ceramic coat will provide, and the fact that it's rated to OVER 1000*. It's specifically listed to do exhaust repairs, so I'm comfortable with it.

Rob, PM me some more info on that housing you've got. It might just be easier to start fresh than go through that whole process, but I am curious to find out what that stuff can hold.

And I've had several people tell me that you can't weld cast. Don't know from experience, but apparently they do.

Personally, I'd rather start from scratch, but that's my .02.

You can weld cast, it's just very difficult to get the welds to keep from cracking again. It's the same reasoning more people buy the 2G exhaust mani instead of welding their 1G manifolds.

i have had my dad tig weld my houseing it was all cracked and it holded up let me no i will talk to him

Hey Goat, I like to see other options attempted and I will be interested to see how this turns out. At the same time I'm pretty skeptical and were it mee and not a money issue I would just get a better housing to re-port. Don't let me hold you back though. Necessity is the mother of invention they say.

The biggest problem with welding cast is the strength of the material afterwards. I had an old toyota truck ex-man welded back in the day by a guy that did it all the time and used the nickle rod with preheating proceedures and all. It worked for the time I had the truck, but that guy wouldn't even guarantee that it would not crak again. It's a roll of the dice, but the ex-man is not structurally supportting much weight and that helps.

Yup, I weld it all the time at work. you gotta preheat it, Stick weld it with a nickel rod, and hope like hell it dont crack again!

That was kind of my thought. I don't NEED to do this, I just want to try it. But I'm not putting the turbo at risk just to see if the stuff holds mustard. I'm going to apply different amount of the filler to a piece of cast iron, and then take a MAPP torch to it for about a half hour or so, then tap on the pieces with a hammer to see how they hold. I figure that's a lot more brutal than what will be seen inside the turbo.

Even if I don't go through with this there are some other "special" applications for my car that I'll be doing with the filler. Just what, you may ask? Time will tell, Curious George. Time will tell. Oh, and I found out a neat trick if you have a pool and some brake fluid laying around, but I'm not sharing that one.

too much effort for the turd of turbos

Mitsu77 will sell you a housing for $20

just buy a new one. we all know you come from money

That's strange, I heard that he came for money

Your MOM comes from money, pal!!! I'm already sure that I'll go with a new housing simply for convienience. And Spyder, that's just a favor I did for Spy and Nate that one time.... with those dogs ..... in that dress. Only once, though. Okay, 3 or 4 times, but still....

my mom is your mom, i think she was doing a lot of drinking and crystal meth around the time you were conceived. or maybe our fathers are different, im not sure.