Re: [AMC-list] Not done with Freeze Plugs yet

["Armand Eshleman" <aje1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe,

I'm not an expert at casting aluminum, I have done some with homemade
foundries and casting sand, and installed fuel gas and cooling water piping
to an aluminum injection casting facility for TORO Corp. that made mower
housings and gear box parts, among other things, but none of those things,
had cooling water jackets in them like engine blocks do. So the dies were
very simple two piece units that separated when the part cooled a bit, and
the worker would remove the part and whack off the "sprue". There was a golf
club plant in my town years ago, they used the lost wax method, where they
made a likeness of the part out of wax. Covered it in ceramic material (like
clay pottery stuff) added funnels and venting holes, and then fired it in an
oven until the wax melted out and the ceramic was hard. Then they poured
molten metals into the molds. After it cooled they broke the mold and
removed the part.
Old aluminum blocks were sand cast just like the cast iron blocks. The new
aluminum engines are injection die cast using very intricate steel molds
that assemble and disassemble to remove the parts. I believe they also use
foam in the mold process that when the molten aluminum alloy is poured in,
the foam melts out and creates the cooling jackets and some other tricky
parts. It been awhile since I've seen the videos on the process so I may not
be exactly spot on, but I think you get the idea of how they die cast engine
blocks in aluminum alloys.
During WW2 the Germans made aircraft and tank engines using a material they
called silumin, which is an alloy of aluminum and silicone up to about 12%
or so. It made the aluminum very durable and increased it's hardness. I
never happened across any information of what the Allied aircraft engines
were cast from but I would assume it was a similar alloy. I'm pretty sure
the alloys being used in today's super high tech engines is much improved
over those early alloys.

AMC content??
See my next post

Armand.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Fulton" <piper_pa20@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Rambler Nash Jeep and familyAMC" <amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 2:36 PM
Subject: Re: [AMC-list] Not done with Freeze Plugs yet


>
>
> --- On Sat, 3/13/10, Armand Eshleman <aje1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > From: Armand Eshleman <aje1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Subject: [AMC-list] Not done with  Freeze Plugs yet
> > To: "AMC, Rambler, Nash, Jeep and family" <amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Date: Saturday, March 13, 2010, 11:47 AM
> > Frank said "They plug the holes used
> > to pour molten steel or aluminum into
> > the mold for the block (or head). "
> >
> > I said
> > As long as we are being really anal about "freeze" plugs,
> > and because it was
> > mentioned we like to learn things on this list, and because
> > it was mentioned
> > about getting a lecture or something like that, I guess I
> > better add my
> > coins to the discussion.
> > Actually the "holes" that the plugs fill are NOT where the
> > molten metal is
> > poured into the mold. The holes filled with
> > "freeze/welch/core" plugs (I've
> > heard them referred to as soffit plugs too) is actually the
> > hole that the
> > sand is removed from. The molds that cast iron blocks are
> > poured with is
> > made of casting sand. There I said it and I'm done.
> >
> > Armand
> >
> >> >
> Armand, thank you.  But I have a question:  Since the aluminum blocks
where die cast (presumably molten aluminum was injected into a die under
pressure) why was a core hole necessary?
>
> Joe Fulton
>
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