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#71
The Lounge / Re: Due to arrive soon
Last post by 94touring - February 15, 2026, 06:08:41 PMQuote from: MiniDave on February 15, 2026, 02:04:37 PMYou should do a series of pics on putting the Timeserts in when you get the kit. I'll like to see how you square it up to get it straight, that's the toughest part, I think. Having the head off will help since you won't have to worry about schmutz getting in the cylinder.
Well it should be easy to square it up actually. In their spark plug kits the tap is a 2 level step tap. The first level chases the current threads, which since I have enough threads available should go in straight. The 2nd portion and level of the tap then creates the new larger diameter hole and new threads. But, even if it's still not square to the face of the sealing surface, the counter bore insert that afixes to the tap also has 2 levels. The first creates the counter bore for the insert and the 2nd level then machines off the sealing surface square to the hole. After watching a series of videos it should be very easy, I'll snap pics though. In fact I kind of wish I left the head installed and just vacuumed out shavings with my little hose attachment on my shop vac.
#72
The Lounge / Re: Due to arrive soon
Last post by cstudep - February 15, 2026, 04:51:24 PMAs a bike guy long before I was a car guy I feel your pain. I have had to deal with damaged spark plug threads in motorcycle heads more than I care to think about lol.
Like Dave said, at least you have the head off that simplifies things, although there are ways to deal with it I always felt nervous doing it with the head on, never actually had any issues and head on is how I had to do most of them.
Like Dave said, at least you have the head off that simplifies things, although there are ways to deal with it I always felt nervous doing it with the head on, never actually had any issues and head on is how I had to do most of them.
#73
The Lounge / Re: Due to arrive soon
Last post by MiniDave - February 15, 2026, 02:04:37 PMYou should do a series of pics on putting the Timeserts in when you get the kit. I'll like to see how you square it up to get it straight, that's the toughest part, I think. Having the head off will help since you won't have to worry about schmutz getting in the cylinder.
#74
Cars for sale/wanted / Re: OZ Moke for sale
Last post by drmini - February 15, 2026, 09:19:28 AMIt was running and driving when they dropped the engine and subframe assembly. It's still intact and ready to put back in. Not sure what the condition is, just know it was running when they started working on it last year. I want $8000 for it and that's the bottom line. If I can't get that, I'll put it together and at least double the price.
#75
The Lounge / Re: Due to arrive soon
Last post by 94touring - February 15, 2026, 04:33:09 AMAnd the beatings will continue until morale improves. After a nice cruise to break in the new transaxle, which runs great and feels better shifting even, I came back to the shop to do a compression check on #4 cylinder. It was running very cool in comparison to the others so thought I'd see if anything was up with it. Wasn't anything wrong with it, but trying to get the plug reinstalled gave me struggles. They're rather tricky to begin with when the engine is installed and more so with the CHT sensors under the plug. I get them started by hand to make sure I'm not cross threading, and then use the ratchet. Thought I had it started but a few ratchet turns in it felt off to me so backed it out and tried again. This went on for awhile until I came to the conclusion my plug threads in the head were fucked. Which they were. I ended up pulling the head with the engine installed and it will need repaired. Dave pointed me in the direction of timeserts. Watching YouTube vids it appears a lot of bike heads made from alloy have the same issue. I use the same 12mm plugs as bikes. After scratching my head why this happened, it looks like the brand new plug I installed got a piece of metal wadded up in the first section of threads. I couldn't even pick it out. It did a number on the threads. Some remained, sections fell off or were falling off. As far as why #4 ran cooler, the deflector piece under the cylinder tin was giving the bulk of air to 4. So I got that fixed at least.
#76
The Lounge / Re: Tig Welders
Last post by cstudep - February 14, 2026, 09:25:31 PMsilicon bronze is definitely the way to go for mig welding body panels. I have used it back before I got my tig welder. At the time it was difficult to find and rather expensive. It creates a softer weld that can be hammer and dollied flat without cracking unlike normal mig. If you get good with it, you can really limit the amount of grinding you need to do.
That said, you also get the same result using tig. You get a much softer weld that can be hammer and dollied flat, along with a smaller heat zone.
I have yet to master it, but am getting better when I have time to practice. Which hasn't been much lately unfortunately. If you really want to step into drama and controversy check out the guys who endorse welding one continuous tig bead start to finish with no stopping on a panel. No skip welding, or spot move spot move techniques. I have found when done well the continuous tig weld produces much less warpage and the warpage that is there is more consistent and easier to correct. My biggest problem has been consistency, sometimes I get a nice result, sometimes less so. I need more time to get more practicing in so that when I start for real maybe I'll be better at it. I just really enjoy tig welding for some reason.
That said, you also get the same result using tig. You get a much softer weld that can be hammer and dollied flat, along with a smaller heat zone.
I have yet to master it, but am getting better when I have time to practice. Which hasn't been much lately unfortunately. If you really want to step into drama and controversy check out the guys who endorse welding one continuous tig bead start to finish with no stopping on a panel. No skip welding, or spot move spot move techniques. I have found when done well the continuous tig weld produces much less warpage and the warpage that is there is more consistent and easier to correct. My biggest problem has been consistency, sometimes I get a nice result, sometimes less so. I need more time to get more practicing in so that when I start for real maybe I'll be better at it. I just really enjoy tig welding for some reason.
#77
The Lounge / Re: Tig Welders
Last post by MiniDave - February 14, 2026, 06:36:14 PMToday I made up an extension cord that plugs into the existing 240V socket I use for my air compressor, the other end I matched up to the plug on the welder cord. I needed a fairly long cord as my 240V socket is not close to where I'll be welding, either on the hot rod or outside on my welding table, and of course it has to be heavy duty enough to carry the load.
That done I fired it up for the first time. I still don't have the spool of wire loaded as I need to move it onto the little home made welding cart, and I need to hook up the gas bottle. I also need to figure out someplace to park the cables when I'm not using it.
Likewise - I have to figure out how to use the dumb thing! I did find some You Tube Academy videos so now I at least understand what the knobs and buttons all do, but I need to make up a chart to correlate the numbers on the readouts to what I'm welding. It would be nice if these chineseum tools came with some sort of instructions.
I learned something else this morning - one of the Age and Treachery Racing guys we breakfast with on Saturday sells very expensive ($30K average) welding equipment to body shops, and his machines are all set up to use silicon bronze welding wire - in other words they braze the body panels together. It mostly has to do with the extra strength steel they use in modern cars and not getting too much heat into the weld and causing the metal to anneal (soften). I asked him where I can get some of that wire, what it costs and what sort of specialized welder it takes to use it. Answers - downtown, cheap and the one I just bought will do it if I turn it down low enough!
OK then, I think I may go ahead and learn how to do that too, while I'm in there!
Oh, and I went ahead and ordered the TiG torch while I was at it......
While going thru the YouTube video's on the welder most everyone who reviewed it either by itself or in comparison with other similar welders came away very impressed. The guy I learned the most from has had his for 5 years now and it's his go to welder. He's had no issues with it at all. Encouraging. One surprise tho, the fan is really loud. I rarely heard the fan on my old welder, although occasionally if I was working it really hard I would hear it spool up to its highest speed for a while.
That done I fired it up for the first time. I still don't have the spool of wire loaded as I need to move it onto the little home made welding cart, and I need to hook up the gas bottle. I also need to figure out someplace to park the cables when I'm not using it.
Likewise - I have to figure out how to use the dumb thing! I did find some You Tube Academy videos so now I at least understand what the knobs and buttons all do, but I need to make up a chart to correlate the numbers on the readouts to what I'm welding. It would be nice if these chineseum tools came with some sort of instructions.
I learned something else this morning - one of the Age and Treachery Racing guys we breakfast with on Saturday sells very expensive ($30K average) welding equipment to body shops, and his machines are all set up to use silicon bronze welding wire - in other words they braze the body panels together. It mostly has to do with the extra strength steel they use in modern cars and not getting too much heat into the weld and causing the metal to anneal (soften). I asked him where I can get some of that wire, what it costs and what sort of specialized welder it takes to use it. Answers - downtown, cheap and the one I just bought will do it if I turn it down low enough!
OK then, I think I may go ahead and learn how to do that too, while I'm in there!
Oh, and I went ahead and ordered the TiG torch while I was at it......
While going thru the YouTube video's on the welder most everyone who reviewed it either by itself or in comparison with other similar welders came away very impressed. The guy I learned the most from has had his for 5 years now and it's his go to welder. He's had no issues with it at all. Encouraging. One surprise tho, the fan is really loud. I rarely heard the fan on my old welder, although occasionally if I was working it really hard I would hear it spool up to its highest speed for a while.
#78
The Lounge / Re: Tig Welders
Last post by 94touring - February 14, 2026, 06:35:27 PMI can get some very flush plug welds with my mig, but it's a hobart 210 and about $1000 more than what you just paid when I bought it. As long as the surfaces are clean and I select #2 heat range, I get very good results.
#79
Cars for sale/wanted / Re: 1966 MGB
Last post by MiniDave - February 14, 2026, 02:15:58 PM
Wow, it's great when it works out like that! #80
The Lounge / Re: Tig Welders
Last post by MiniDave - February 14, 2026, 12:24:28 PMYes, although this one can do flux core as well, so I may buy a small roll and do some of that too.
I don't know where the tradeoff is between easier to grind and less splatter etc to clean up. When I did my Jag I had an expensive Snap On welder that I borrowed and I was able to do plug welds that looked like spot welds in that they didn't stand above the top layer of metal, yet were fused well and strong. I haven't been able to do that with my own inexpensive 120V welder, I'm hoping I can fine tune this new one to get similar results as I did with the SO welder.
I don't know where the tradeoff is between easier to grind and less splatter etc to clean up. When I did my Jag I had an expensive Snap On welder that I borrowed and I was able to do plug welds that looked like spot welds in that they didn't stand above the top layer of metal, yet were fused well and strong. I haven't been able to do that with my own inexpensive 120V welder, I'm hoping I can fine tune this new one to get similar results as I did with the SO welder.