Please help i need your help, ideas, suggestions...

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The heater hose connector on my 350 tbi intake manifold rotted out. I tried tapping it out but 20 yrs of rusting got the best of it. The manifold is cast iron and i know that if you mismatch metals it can rust. So my idea was to has someone weld a nipple or pipe on the manifold and run a 3/4 heater hose to the heater core with clamps. Problem is i went to mclandons and the local parts store to find a pipe/nipple but all they had was copper, aluminum, and galvanized. I thought about finding a grade 8 nut and have it welded on top of the broken connector. Then maybe have a copper plumbing pipe rethreaded for the nut. But will the copper rust the grade 8? What's grade 8 made out of anyways? Or can i have a stainless steel pipe/nipple welded onto the cast iron without it rusting? Also thought of welding a chrome vanadium 3/4 socket to the manifold instead. I'm open to suggestions and my truck has been down for the past 2 wks. thanksLast edited by wazazzle; 06-29-2007 at 04:59 AM.IdealArc 250 AC/DC Roundtop225 AC/DC TombstoneSP175TO/A Linc-Harris Port a TorchTitan Vapor 90 5x Lincoln Helmets  CH105 Mig21g comp, drills, grinders, buff/polishers, hvlp guns, etc.
Reply:Well, standard "black iron" pipe welds up pretty nicely.  Go to a decent plumbing supply house and they will have what you need.  It will rust, but not rust through for a very long time (think like maybe a hundred years or more -- there are homes with black iron heating pipes remaining in service from the days when hydronic heat was first invented).To back up a second, are you sure you can't run a standard NPT (national pipe thread) tap in the manifold?  What is the manifold doing?Last edited by phila.renewal; 06-29-2007 at 08:24 AM.Favorite right now is a Miller Syncro 200.Tons of tools and I blame at least one of them when things don't go right.
Reply:I may be wrong, but I have never seen one that couldn't be removed. take the manifold to a good machine shop and have them remove the broken pieces and rethread the hole.  if you are worrying about the rust, you can have a stainless fitting welded onto the manifold but you are doing so at the risk of warping the manifold thus causing potential for leakage elsewhere.  I would have someone clean out and rethread it myself.I'm a Lover, Fighter, Wild horse Rider, and a pretty good welding man......
Reply:Is it TBI or TPI ? Either way, the fittings can be taken out, I believe. It's been a while since I've worked on a TBI truck or van but it may take some wrangling to get it out. Hit it with some rust penetration oil, no WD-40, and let it sit for a day. Try it, there should be a nut pattern near the bottom. If it doesn't budge, hit it with more rust pen. and let it sit more. Try again. If you don't want to go through all that, hit the online search and look for another intake. If the unit on your vehicle is that bad, it's likely to give you more trouble down the road - replace it!John -  fabricator extraordinaire, car nut!-  bleeding Miller blue! http://www.weldfabzone.com
Reply:it is tbi and i'm going to try to retap the 3/4" hole... i tried using a reverse drill bit but that unsuccessful. i'm fairly sure i can get it tapped and cleaned. but now my concern is if i screw in copper or stainless steel nipple will it rust due to nonmatching metals? i just had a new motor built and plan on driving this truck around a long time... so i don't want any of that rust floating around damaging the inside of the motor.Last edited by wazazzle; 06-30-2007 at 08:11 AM.IdealArc 250 AC/DC Roundtop225 AC/DC TombstoneSP175TO/A Linc-Harris Port a TorchTitan Vapor 90 5x Lincoln Helmets  CH105 Mig21g comp, drills, grinders, buff/polishers, hvlp guns, etc.
Reply:A left hand drill would do little for this type of thing. As stated before let is soak in a good pentrating oil like PB Blaster or Koil. A six point deep socket should be used unless the hex on the bottom is too rounded off. In this case try a large bolt extractor. You might need to drill down the center of it to get the extractor nearly all the way in. Be sure to get a good straight pull on the wrench when using the extractor or your snap it off in the fitting and you really will have problems then. Another method would be to remove the manifold and drill down the center of the fitting with increasing sizes of drill bits untils you just strart to touch the threads of the manifold. Then the rust of the fitting can chipped out of the threads with a pick punch or pryed out with a pick. After you get a few small pieces of the old fitting broken off you can get a tap started in the threads. By working the tap forward and back about a 1/4 to 1/2 turn at a time you'll be able to work out the pieces  of the fitting. Remove the tap often to remove and chips to prevent damaging to the threads or breaking the tap. Use a tap wrench with two handles rather than a adjustable wrench to turn the tap if possible to prevent snapping the tap. Slow and steady is the key. Good luck!