[SEL] Re: Fairbanks Morse ZD Head Repair Information Needed

[Richard Allen]

Hi, Francis,

There has been enough mentioned already about the virtues of JB Weld,
so I won’t add anything more except that I, too, endorse the product
for its many, many uses. It has saved me a lot of grief over the years.
Good stuff when used within its rather wide limits of application!

If you can get access to both sides of a damaged area, a hole like you
mentioned that does not have a moving part pass over it can be repaired
by drilling it out with the size drill that will just clean up the
edges of the hole so it is round and into clean metal and then
inserting a rivet and peening it over. That works great and is usually
permanent. You can make a rivet by carefully filing to size a piece of
soft steel obtained from an inexpensive screw turned in an electric
hand drill, drill press, or machining in a lathe. The hole should also
have clean metal around its open ends as well for the rivet metal to
peen down onto and make a tight seal. I have peened over pinhole leaks
in old hydraulic line welds that held 2500 psi, so peened brass and
steel rivets seal quite well. 

I have also repaired an old engine head where the combustion gas had
cut a channel on the head surface under the gasket from the combustion
chamber to a water jacket passage by carefully drilling a ¼-inch (6mm)
deep hole in the middle of the burn groove that was slightly wider than
the burn channel. I put in a brass pin made from an old brass screw,
peened it down into the groove and then draw-filed it down flat with
the head surface. Don’t use a piece of brazing rod for peening and
riveting because it is quite hard and won’t peen well at all, it tends
to shatter as it work hardens.

Good luck on your repair, tell us how it turns out.