Welding VW heads

[Unkl Ian]

You might find a local welding shop that specializes in
repairs for truck motors.A VW head would be no problem for them.

[heat treater]

I used to work at Edwards AFB welding and heat treating. so i took a VW bug head in and shot it with the analyzer gun, it came out as 2098 (copper based) alloy. Then i found some 2319 (copper based) welding rod. ground out the cracks, took it up to 400 degrees, welded it up, then took it up to 850 degrees, soaked it for an hour, threw it in the water tank. The best part about the quench is that it zero's out the clock, any previous stresses are gone, it's like when it came from the foundry. it's condition is "W", so it will slowly creep to a T-4 condition at room temperature in 2 weeks (or you can cook it at 250 degrees for 24 hours). kind of comes out dull grey from the quench, i guess that i could of blast it off.
The best part is the welding rod alloy, 4043 is the rod that most people use because it's soft and melts at a lower temp., doesn't crack and welds easy. but it's a silicon alloy (take soft pure aluminum and add RTV, even softer), 2319 is a copper based rod, it matches the head alloy in strength, but it does need to be heat treated after or it will crack (it's stronger). I've since retired and don't have access to heat treat ovens any more, bummer. i still need to finish the machining and stick it on a engine, hopefully someday
The heat treat spec's that we used were NAV-AIR, might be available on line.

[Arnoud]

Attached is the link to Jeff Denham's Youtube channel.It shows a lot of jobs done to aircooled VW heads.
https://www.youtube.com/@JDspeedandFab./videos

Cheers,Arnoud