People who have experience: welding a wastegate shut

There you have it. I have successfully welded cast iron with a stick welder, and the right rod, but welding what appears to be a steel waste gate to a cast iron turbo housing has me asking for advice -to whit, do I need to heat the housing? Disassemble? How do you avoid cracking the housing? Again, if you have done this procedure successfully, any advice is appreciated.

SwankForce has had a few like that, but IDK who or how. I'd figure just lay down a bead with a mig would work.

Why not just wire it shut with the little actuator arm? Much easier and reversible.

I've seen them held shut with bolts on the back side, too.

I thought turbine housings were some high-nickel super heat resistant alloy, not "cast iron".

Anyway, +1 for mechanically holding it shut.

i was planning on doing this with an hx40 i had for a project, i was going to remove the wastegate and use the stock rod and a homemade bracket to basically bolt the rod tight closed

Knurled wrote: I thought turbine housings were some high-nickel super heat resistant alloy, not "cast iron". Anyway, +1 for mechanically holding it shut.

They certainly don't act like cast iron when you weld on them. It is a cast steel or "ductile cast iron" at least. Much lower carbon content than the cast iron that is such a pain to weld. The turbo housings I have seen weld very nicely.

It is a huge chunk of metal so a little 110 MIG isn't gonna cut it.

I just wire brushed the housing to clean it off and hit it with a big Lincoln MIG. As long as it didn't fall off I didn't care about anything other than making it stick.

I think they're usually made of Ni-Resist.

I had an old schwitzer that was definitely cast iron complete with all the cracking, rusting and falling apart problems that come with that. Failure prone and difficult to repair.

Turbine wheels are made of super high nickel alloys. The turbine housings are cast iron, just a better quality one than you are used to seeing.

Ni-Resist is used for the housing, not the wheels. Some of the wheels are Inconel.

Keith Tanner wrote: Ni-Resist is used for the housing, not the wheels. Some of the wheels are Inconel.

All turbine wheels are inconel in one form or another. Nothing has the ability to grow so little under the extreme temps the wheels see. It allows tighter blade tip to housing clearances. Yes.. Ni-resist is one trade name for higher nickel cast iron.

Keith Tanner wrote: Why not just wire it shut with the little actuator arm? Much easier and reversible. I've seen them held shut with bolts on the back side, too.

This was my first thought, but I fell victim to group think.

Thanks for the input, all. Interesting conversation.