Of course you are right Racer X. Some people speak first, think later, then ignore their comments hoping everyone will forget what they said.

Using a weld to pin a liner from the outside of the block is a fairly radical idea, but it can help some keep driving their Rovers. Terrific. Who am I to call it bad?

What I will not do is call it a viable alternative to installing Darton liners which everyone (by now) should clearly understand addresses both the slipping and coolant gassing issues. Top hats are the long-term fix.

If one of these weld-pinned liners starts leaking coolant into the combustion chamber next week the whole exercise is toast. And so is the block, because you can no longer remover the OEM liners, and even if you could the block is now a piece of Swiss cheese.

 

Not sure how I got drug into this. I actually thought the idea had merit.

I will however remind you like the last time you prided yourself in running members off the forum that this is a friendly forum and you can refrain from name calling.

At least you and Drow have found a common ground since you both dislike me.

 

That weld job is pretty cool.
Big holes needed in the block.

I still don't understand how the stainless wire is fused to the sleeves?

Electricity weld makes it melt and stick?

Thanks for sharing.

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I just wonder if you could do it friction fit.
If you could heat the block in an oven.

Take the block out - remove all the sleeves.

Then get very thin stainless and wrap it around the sleeve and insert the sleeve and stainless around the outside of the sleeve back into the engine?

Like a thin razor blade thick shim around the outside of the sleeve.


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Or there must be an electro chemical reaction to bond iron to aluminum.

But the drilling and weld is a valiant effort.
Well done!

 

Something to remember is we accept risk when we spend money on a vehicle this old.

If you spring for a $2500 HG repair, you are accepting that:

You might crash the truck
You might have a transmission failure
You might blow a tire and flip the truck
The truck might catch fire because your crazy ex doused it with gas and lit it up
A plane might fall out of the sky and hit it
A meteor might fall out of the sky and hit it
Etc.

Anytime we spend money on our truck we are saying, "the expense of this repair is worth the risk, because I don't think any of these catastrophes will happen".

Similarly, welding the sleeve in place has risks.

It might leak coolant around the welds.
It might break loose and require a new block.
It might weaken the aluminum around it and crack the block itself.

These things could happen, but how likely are they? And more importantly, how expensive is a used engine if you ruin yours?

Ultimately, the cost of welding the sleeves in place is far less than a full rebuild including top hats, and I personally would happily except the risk to save several thousand dollars.

 

On a Discovery V8 it is more than likely, it is a guarantee. This is a question of risk tolerance, not statistics. Because somewhere along the line virtually every factory block will fail. With all we know (and have learned here) some will fix the problems using a wise approach while others will not.

Actions driven by appetite for risk are what forms our world -- not all of that 'asteroid out of the sky' nonsense.

 

When we weld we call the effect "sticking" where the metals alloy together into one piece. I MIG welded the cast iron sleeve with high nickel stainless wire. The stainless wire will not "stick" to the aluminum surrounding it. I did MANY test welds on that junk block to see what worked the best.

The whole point is to not have to take the entire engine out. I'm fully sure you could heat the block to 300 degrees, pull the sleeves out, scratch the bore so the glue has somewhere to go, then douse it in red loctite and stick the sleeve back in. Then deck the block and line bore. But that defeats the whole cheap and dirty tactic.

 

Jared called, he wants you to plug weld his block for him...

 

I say well done. Pinning a liner with small bolts sounded like it wouldn't work to me. I was sure that the liners would crack at the bolts and start to move again. But there are plenty of accounts on this and other forums of pinned liners staying quiet for a long time. I should think this approach would last as long or longer. Typically, an engine with a slipped sleeve would have maybe another 50k to go with no issues so if this fix lasts for 30k, it sounds like a winner to me. As for coolant leaks, if the block wasn't leaking coolant into the oil when it got plug welded why would it after being welded? If it is leaking coolant then the block is cracked and is junk anyway. I don't see how fixing the liners in their bores with two blobs of weld are going to make the block more prone to crack. He isn't drilling through the jacketed part of the block for the plug welds.

 

I'm not sure anyone said the plug welds would make the engine any more prone to crack and leak - that is already the nature of the OEM block. But the welds do make the block completely unrepairable when cracks inevitably appear that do cause coolant leaks behind the liners.

 

I disagree.

A competent machinist could drill the welds, remove the liners, weld the holes in the block, weld the compromise in the coolant jacket, re-bore, and insert new sleeves.

Would it be hellaciously expensive? You bet!

But it wouldn't be unrepairable.