Mustang Exhaust Manifold -- Am I up to it?

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Hmmm...  My step son and I just spent three hours removing the R/S exhaust manifold from the 2001 Mustang.  Had an exhaust leak, but we couldn't really tell exactly where it was coming from.  Very difficult area to work in.Check out the photos.My dilemma.  New one from dealer cost $305.  Ebay parts from highly rated sellers = $90 or so.  I'm debating my skills as a welder.  Not sure my skill set is really up for this one.Tools I have:  150 Amp Thermal Arc Inverter TIG machine.  (AC/DC, with pulse options, balance option, foot pedal.  I also have the stinger cable for it...)  I also have a set of die grinders with carbide tooling.  Somewhere in the shop is a functional dremel tool as well.I'm okay at stick welding (I have 3/32" 6010, 6013 and 7018 on hand).  I'm sorta mediocre at TIG welding.  No access to MIG. As you can see from the photos, the entire end of the manifold has snapped off at the weld.   I've scored the alignment on the outside to I understand how it goes back together.  This end of the manifold mates to a floating flange, do perfect alignment isn't all that critical.  Needs to be oriented, but not crazy perfect.  The obvious question is am I capable of repairing this thing, or will it be too brittle such that any repair is doomed for later?  I'm assuming I should TIG weld this, but what filler should I use?  My tendency is to order one off of Ebay and practice for myself to see if I could do this...Your comments, ideas?   Many thanks,Zip. Attached Images
Reply:What do you have to loose?  Clean both parts where you are going to weld and tig weld it.  If you don't succeed then buy a new one.  You could try tigging on a piece of steel that you have handy to get a feel for it and when you are confident, weld the real one.  Best  Bob
Reply:Doesn't look like it's cast so that makes it easier. I agree with rhunt, or use the opportunity to put a set of headers on it.If you don't want to stand behind our Troops, feel free to stand in front of them.
Reply:Yeah give it a shot. The weld that was there doesn't look too great to begin with. The only thing you have to loose is a little time and some filler and argon. But all you have to gain is more skill and confidence. Clean the crap out of it. (shiny steel in the weld joint) and weld away.Offering CNC Plasma cutting and welding projects.Follow me on facebook https://www.facebook.com/nobigdeal.fabSupport those that support WW.
Reply:Okay, I'll give it a shot.  I just finished cleaning up most of the old weld.  Used a die grinder with carbide bit and large half round file to take off most of the old weld on the ID of the heavy metal exhaust flange.  I used a sanding disk and sanding tube on a die grinder to clean up the OD and ID of the remaining manifold tube.  I still have a little work to do on the ID of the flange.  The one surprise was the OD of the manifold runner tube is a lot smaller than the ID of the flange.  I left a little of the old weld in place such that over half of the end of the inner tube is visible.  If I were to remove ALL of the old weld bead, there would be a lot of slop.  I think it would be very tough to close a large gap with a half lap using TIG.  Put the TIG set up all together ( I recently move across the country..) did the bubble leak test on the Argon and regulator.  I will attempt the weld up in the AM.  One question... what filler wire?  I'm guessing the manifold material gauge is approx 1/16" (0.0625")   Will my 1/16" ER70-S2 be okay to use?  (i.e.   Does an engine exhaust manifold duty cycle dictates something more exotic?)  thanks for your help and encouragement.  zip. Attached Images
Reply:yeah, it probably is a lower grade stainless, I'd def use stainless filler toomiller 330a bp TIGmiller dynasty 200DX TIGmillermatic 185 MIGthermal dynamics cutmaster 101 plasma cuttersnap-on YA5550 plasma cutterhypertherm powermax 30 plasma cutterbaileigh CS225 cold sawetc....
Reply:This looks exactly like what you are playing with..http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/de...QRB674536.htmlSays it's cast iron but sure looks like stainless in the pic... but your's has that casting "Seam" in the back so you better check to see what exactly it's made of.....zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:Uh-oh... It turns out all I have on hand is:1/16" ER70-S20.035" Royal 220-T (Premium Mild Steel Tensile to 80K)0.035" ER80S-D2 (Superior High Strength Low-Alloy Steel)I did look closely at the manifold.  The collector tube is made up of two stamped clamshell half's and MIG welded together.  The feeder tubes are seamless stainless steel.  I'm pretty sure stainless is the call here.  I did measure the material thickness at the break with a vernier caliper at 0.065"I'll have to pick up some stainless wire in the morning..Thanks for the input...
Reply:Ford uses 409 stainless for most of those manifolds/pipes. I weld quite a few of those, tig 309 stainless other grades will also work.PeterEquipment:2  old paws2  eyes (that don't look so good)1  bad back
Reply:Followup...I did pick up 1/16" E309 filler rod from Praxair 7585 Commercial Way, Henderson, NV.  Good guys there, they took very good care of me.  Repair worked okay, kinda sorta.  I think it will hold, its just not pretty.  Not sure why my confidence thing was so fragile.  Just gotta jump into it, I guess.  Oh, and I made plenty of mistakes.  Info here to assist other newby / rookie / amateur TIG welders...    I made plenty of mistakes.  But you learn from your mistakes, so that's a good thing. 1) I had a very difficult time getting the setup positioned so things were comfortable.  With the shape of the manifold its a very ackward thing to clamp.  I tried C clamps, large cast iron 90 degree machinist reference, bailing wire, lots of other things. The best thing I had was an old drill press vise with adjustable angle.  What I tried to do was practice the motion I was intending to make with the torch.  I figured that I could go 90 degrees of arc in one pass.  That wasn't always successful.  I had plenty of tungsten hits (contamination to puddle) but also had difficulty getting room for the filler rod.  In a couple of cases I hit the rod to tungsten contaminating things up.  I'd stop, swap tungsten, cut off end of filler rod, clean up the workpiece and start again.  2) Don't forget to ground the work.  In one case I simply forgot, but with the ground clamp simply sitting on the table, it still welded okay.  I got best results with the clamp directly on the workpiece.  3) Its fricking hot in Las Vegas in August, what ever time day or night.  Take plenty of breaks, drink water.  Keep towel handy to wipe off face and forehead.  4) I have a pretty good set of cheater lenses in my welding helmet.  I discovered that I could see the puddle much better with the helmet cheaters but without my glasses on my face.  That helped me see the puddle much better.  When we went to put the manifold back into the car, my stepson and I were working together.  At one point he became too out of control.. sweat pouring off his forehead, cussing, etc.. I told him to stop, take a break, walk away for a minute or so... He absolutely wouldn't listen to me. (Been here before...)  About 90 seconds after that, while he was still struggling in the car we hear a loud 'crack' noise...   Sure enough, he cracked the EGR bypass tube, with a crack over 180 degrees of coverage at a bend in the tube.  (Thank you God, timing is everything.)  The good news:  I think he realizes that he screwed up and should listen to me better.  The bad news: I really suck at TIG welding thin tubing materials.The good news: I get once more chance to practice welding up thin tubing materials.  The bad news:  I didn't have any filler rod thinner than 1/16" (I just did what I could with what I had...)  The tube was pretty thin at that bend.  I cleaned up the material the best I could, but there really was no good way to clean up the inside of the tube.  That weld is sloppy.  Its not a load bearing part, so I figured what the heck.  Its also relatively easy to get to, if it breaks again... Er, well not easy, but you don't have to remove too many parts to get to it again.  I did keyhole the tube many times, but got pretty good at refilling the holes... I did start the arc on the filler rod a couple of times, not sure if that is legal or not.  It seemed to reduce my burn thru's at startup.  Other lessons learned doing the tube weld up:5) I had bought a couple of TIG fingers from Jody at welding tips and tricks, but didn't find them all that useful up to now.  For welding on thin tube the TIG finger worked VERY well.  I could set up, practice my torch and filler motion easily.  Photos attached.  (Please be kind...) Attached ImagesLast edited by zipzit; 09-05-2012 at 02:18 PM.
Reply:If it cracked twice in a short amount of time I'm wondering if anything else is about ready to crack on it?Torchmate 2x2 CNC with Flashcut CNC controlsHypertherm Powermax45 Esab ET220i Razorweld 195 MigRazorweld 200ac/dc TigTormach 770, Tormach xstechRazorweld, Vipercut/Vipermig, SSC Foot Pedal Dealer
Reply:Hey Zipzit?Why the worry there mate?  It was broke to start out with and you fixed it.  If it cracks again, you are back at the beginning and you can fix it again.  What we call the Arkansas Guarantee around here, "If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces"You learned something, hopefully saved a few bucks and made the wife happy.  Your stepson learned an important lesson for any aspiring gear head, slow down, speed comes with experience.OK, so the welds are not ZAP perfect?  Big deal, I bet he will tell you that some of his early repairs weren't any beauty queens either.  I'll take a solid ugly weld over a weak pretty weld any day.Decent repair, learned something and saved some money.  Sounds like a good day to me.RogerOld, Tired, and GRUMPYSalesman will call, Batteries not included, Assembly is required, and FREE ADVICE IS WORTH EXACTLY WHAT YOU PAY FOR IT!Dial Arc 250HFThunderbolt 225 AC/DCAssorted A/O torches
Reply:Yeah I agree. For the experience, you have, and the difficulty of the repair. I say good job. It held together and does not leak right? You attempted it and learned. And it appears you did the best you could with what you had. I say you did a great job.I feel you on the heat. Last weekend I went through about 300 ounces of water and was still dehydrated. You really gotta watch it in the heat. Heat injurys come on fast.Offering CNC Plasma cutting and welding projects.Follow me on facebook https://www.facebook.com/nobigdeal.fabSupport those that support WW.
Reply:I would agree with everyone else.Seems to me like you and your stepson both learned something.Your stepson, slow down, and take a break.You, you have to jump in sometimes, it's the only way to learn.  Also like said even if it breaks again the filler rod, gas, etc.. is well worth the practice for a small piece.  If it doesn't break dosen't seem to me like it needs to be pretty so who cares, also you got some extra practice too.  Good lesson for the son in law, and good practice for you.Keep working at it, you will get better.  You will spend a bit, but do as much as you can.  Make a lamp, coffee table, fix the mower, toolbox stand, whatever.  Just keep going at it.