Surge tank at thermostat connection
 

Bought the surge tank from Enzo, all he had was kit.
Called him this morning re:

He said to weld?
Weld brass to mild steel?
I know the rest of it goes together with sodder, but weld dissimilar metals?
I did a search, no luck.

PS: cobra gallery would not let me rotate picture.

[IMG]http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...used-thumb.jpg[/IMG]

Hi Wayne,
Take that lead hammer I sold you, melt it down and use it to solder your tank together:D
A competent radiator shop sould be able to solder the whole thing together for you and then pressure test it to make sure it doesn't leak.
I know it's too late now, but a new stainless steel header tank is being made by Superformance for all the popular engines. It looks just like an orginal one except made from polished stainless. I saw the one made for a 351W and it is beautiful. $375.00
--Mike

Here you go, Wayne...

Ron,
As I told you in the past. You nerver cease to .........
Wayne: I am going through this process as I write. My tank has been repaired twice. You are right about the two different metals. My sheetmetal tech has taking my tank and brazed it where you are concerned. That worked. The first time it was soldered. Apparently the steel does not contain any zinc so it will not sweat at all. He also took the existing metal bracket(under the tank) and tossed it. He then made a new bracket out of galvanize. Sorry for the spelling! That steel bracket caused my second leak. After all that I am now in good shape. I think.

Shannon

Ron,
Damn! you should enter that masterpiece in a modern art contest :LOL: Ize gots an origional tank at the shop. I'll go take a good look, but as I remember it, It looks like an interference fit. I'll try to post some pics of how I did one of them there kits. (no leaks yet) Tell your guy it's easy to create a flange on the bottom of the tank where the tube goes in. This provides a good surface area for the solder. I realise you probably can't visualise what I'm saying, So stand by for photos.
Steve
The location and lenth of the tube is not stock due to this tank being set up for a 347.
http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...78dsc00607.jpg
http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...78dsc00606.jpg
http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...78dsc00610.jpg
http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...78dsc00609.jpg
http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...8dsc006091.jpg

I was sent to Frey Racing, to have tabs welded onto alum radiator, but Frey closed up their fab shop and are moving their store to Scott Creek Road at Milpitas/Fremont border.
So I drove around the industrial park on a wim and
I found (stumbled across his shop by luck) a one man welding shop:

NUNEZ PRECISION WELDING
Carlos G. Nunez President
1763 Houret Court
Milpitas, California 95035
408 263-9503 Cell 408 690 2272

He welded tabs on my Gordon Levy Radiator(I know Gordon says you don't need tabs, but, but, but), and did a beautyful job on welding the aluminum.

The particular connection I was concerned with, he tig welded using brass rod, and it came out fantastic! I took a picture, but I'm at the wrong computer to be able to post right now, I'll post when I get home tonight.

I tried to sodder the rest of the connections together last night, now I've done alot of copper plumbing soddering, but I could not get enough heat to make a good looking connection, probably me, maybe old equip. I gave up, cleaned up what I had messed up, and it's back at Carlos's shop right now, as I'm typing this, he said he would try silver sodder, and if that did not work well, he would tig weld with brass rod, it will be ready at noon.

SFfiredog, now you tell me... :)

Sfry, this "kid" is good enough, that the trip from Watsonville might be worth it.

Steve R, nice pictures but me thinks you is talking about the wrong connection point, no problem at the connection at the bottom of the tank. The problem was at the other end of the 90degree bend where it connects to the steel/iron flange that bolts to the block and holds the thermostat.

Ron, showoff... :)

[IMG]http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...-008-thumb.jpg[/IMG]

Wayne,
Sorry if I was not clear about what the pictures are for. I posted the shots of the flange to share some additional info in
response to comments about leakage. I saw this area as a potential weakness.
I went to the shop today and looked at the joint you are asking about. As you can probably make out, the original tank pipe is
braised to the thermostat flange.
Hope this helps.
Steven
http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...c00611-med.jpg
http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...c00612-med.jpg

Wayne,
I hope you don't mind, I took the liberty of reposting your picture of that bad boy ;)
http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...27-008-med.jpg
Steven

Steven,
Now I understand what you were doing with the first pics you posted, I had tunnel vision, just trying to get clear how to do the connection you posted in your last two pics, man that must be some camera you have.
As I said the welder use TIG with a brass rod.

No I don't mind at all you enlarging the picture, glad you appreciate her, (I'm assuming you mean the engine not the surge tank when you said: "bad boy"), :) ain't nothing like a BB. And she has never been bored, a true S/O casting (Oil passage not drilled), per Mike.
Here is how she arrived just off the boat, running backasswards, and that's her sister, off to the right, in the background, frozen.

[IMG]http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...16-008-med.jpg[/IMG]

Mike Stevens of Stevens Auto Works near here in Milpitas is taking her up to the go-cart stage, man he's doing a beautyful job, much nicer then I could, he went thru the engine as well. Should fire her up next week, and then I'll put this body on her and take her to Knotts:

[IMG]http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...01-014-med.jpg[/IMG]

Pretty tough to compete with tig welded brass ..........but , with heat and an acid etched surface you can solder steel to brass, you must "tin" the steel first with acid then good heat ,then high tin solder, not really that hard, but you want to make the steel connections first as they need much more heat than the brass components .......... or find someone to tig brass...........crap .....I didnt even know you could do that!!

Hey Wayne, how about unbolting that tank and bringing it to breakfast Saturday. I spent some time this week fabing up a tank and bracket. I would appreciate a look.
Rick

Rjick, sorry, I'll be in Cabo this weekend, gotta see a man about a Volkswagon. :)
And next weekend the car will be running!
You can swing by Mike's, 1636 South Main, Milpitas, just North of Montague if you want a close up look. 408 263-3500

Just added some pictures to my gallery of the surge tank

Wayne,
The camera is a Sony DSC-S85 4.1 Mega pixel. I love it. You can get it on the net for about $500. (search "Pricescan.com")
That picture was shot at one step down from the highest resolution. In it's raw form the picture is something like 35" square.
I imported the image and cropped the details you see.
It is a great diagnostic tool when looking for cracks in castings. Simply snap a picture and zoom in on the suspected area.
When is Knotts this year? I would like to go.
Did you pick up her sister also?
Steven:)

Knotts show:

http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/show...ghlight=knotts

or

http://www.ffcobra.com/ubb/ultimateb...c;f=1;t=014684

And yes, Steve,I did pick up her sister, always been a fantasy of mine....sisters :)

Wow, that is some camera! Not being sure if I would be able to even make one work, the camera I'm using was $29 or $39 at Frys, I asked the salesman for the camera with the most thin instruction book. Getting ready to move up now.

Brass Surge Tank Maker
 

I noticed the brass surge tank photos in this forum and I wanted to put the word out there that the manufacturer of those brass tanks is going by the name of Fast-Track Coolers. The folks that run the company are my aunt and uncle. You can go to their website at

www.fasttrackcoolers.com

I'm the one who is designing their site... there's still more to add... and no surge tank photos just yet... but I'll be adding more soon

anyhow... i just thought it was cool to see a few photos of their tanks on this site...