I posted this over on another forum and want to put it up here too. As mentioned there: I received some great help & advice several times here a few years ago when I was installing a Cummins 4BT in my '67 Dodge Town Wagon. Maybe I can pay back a tiny bit. Some of you may know about this tip already.

I'm installing a late 1st Gen '91-1/2 to '93 intercooler in the same truck above, obviously a custom install. I looked at the I/C and noticed that one of the mounting pins on the bottom of air tank was worn away about 50% on one side. Don't know where these pins go in an original OEM install.

Anyways, got out the MIG, cleaned up the pin with brake cleaner and as soon as I hit the trigger on my MIG gun phzzzzttt, the end of the pin was vaporized!

I had made 2 classic mistakes: one, I ASSUMED these pins were steel by the look of them, and by what I imagined their function must be. Second, I failed to use the welder's best friend, a magnet to check if it's ferrous iron bearing metal or non-ferrous. Guess what? Right....

I'm warning you guys because to look at those pins they look like stainless steel but in fact they're some kinda alloy and can't be welded with a MIG. I can still proceed with my install without them and even end up better off knowing they are not a strong load-bearing piece. On a stock OEM installation maybe this would be a large problem, don't know.

Hope this saves some folks some needless grief.

 

The pins are aluminum just like the tanks. Never clean anything with brake cleaner before you weld it. It creates a gas that can kill you fast. Do a google search for welding and brake cleaner and you will find it. I forget what the gas is but I know its not any good for you.

 

It makes phosgene gas and from what I understand that is nothing to play with.

 

Thanks, Bill!

Correct on the pins, they're machined out of the castings that form the end tanks.

YES!!! on the brake cleaner & MIG welding!!

Thank God it was only an instant of actual welding but that gas, possibly phosgene, puffed off & I inhaled it! Seems funny because it had apparently all evaporated dry so I thought I was perfectly safe: NOT!

Felt like crapola all last night & this morning have some great respiratory problems, one ear all clogged up & swollen gland, sinus problems, aches & pains & feels like a Duesie of a cold coming on! Like you say, coulda killed me.

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!!

Thanks....

 

You should go see a dr it is nothing to play with at all.

 

Thanks, buddy, your concern is very much appreciated!

I seem to be okay now, and just a single little whiff of it, though I know it doesn't take much at all! You're right again and I may go see my sawbones today anyway.

I have already ended up disabled for life thanks to a previous toxic chemical exposure so I do know somewhat about that haah! Seems it's always the last thing a person ever expects, and too often, it's the last thing they experience in this world...

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/phosgene/basics/facts.asp

Thanks!