Sealing up porous ally castings

RichardD · Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:19 pm Post subject: Sealing up porous ally castings

I've got the Alldays gearbox totally dismantled and after serious cleaning I've spotted some areas that are probably porous so I started looking for solutions.

First I spoke to a local company who do vacuum sealing and I was less than impressed with the foreman's attitude towards the job despite his boss's enthusiasm so they're off the list.

Next I spotted an advert in the VVC's magazine for stuff called X-seal which claims to impregnate the metal by capillary action and seal it up permanently. At under £30 delivered it seems like a good option to try and I may even be able to treat the engine block/sump without dismantling.

I shall report back once I've had a chance to try it out.

http://www.x-seal.co.uk/index.php/

teamidris · Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 8:50 am Post subject:

I'm wondering if you can vacuum a local casting void with a vacuum cleaner? The aero boys just use a plastic bag and some sticky strip like bubble gum. They use it to push glued panels together, but also to anodise undersides of wings. I know a vacuum cleaner doesn't pull much, but a 50% vacuum below the glue would pull resin into the void.

RichardD · Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 11:12 am Post subject:

Hmmm, that might work

facomkid · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 8:42 pm Post subject:

Is this also a possible solution for pourous blocks on the p38 engines ?

RichardD · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 10:27 pm Post subject:

According to their website, yes. I'm not sure about it until I've tried and tested it.