It looks like you could buy that unit for the price of the Lincoln 180C. In which case you'd need a bottle anyway. I've heard TIG is basically better than MIG as you have more control of the arc. Most of the time I hear about people welding SS or Al, they use TIG. The fact that it has a built in plasma cutter is nice. I see that the SuperUltra 205 and PowerUltra 205 models are DC only and not suitable for Al. Which model were you looking at?

 

When I think about it, I dont really need to weld aluminum and my friend nick is a professional welder so when needed I can bring my alu stuff to his shop. I will mostly weld metal sheet, Stainless steel, 1" square tubing etc, mostly light stuff so I think the SuperUltra 205 would be good enough. When I look at both model I dont see much difference beside the 150$ higher sticker price on the PowerUltra 205.

 

The main difference is the switches in the inverter. The lower cost one uses MOSFETs and the higher cost one uses IGBTs. IGBTs are generally regarded as better. Here's a basic rundown of the differences (from Everlast, no less).

As for welding Al, AC is necessary to destroy the layer of Al oxide that forms when welding.

Lincoln has some really in-depth articles on its site if you want to do some reading.

 

Thanks for your input. I will definitely read the articles.

I found that the the Everlast are also warranty for 5 years.

 

It seem that the PowerPro 226 would be a better choice, the price is set at 1599$ and it use IGBT's, so welding alu would not be an issue, that sound like this unit would be a better choice. I could also get the Power Tig 185 for only 800$ but I like the idea of having a plasma cutter as well.

After reading the article about Mosfet and IGBT's, I now remember reading it but I had forgot about it, but thanks for the links. I'm going to wait another months and probably get the PP226.

 

There is only good review on the Lincoln Electric MIG Pak 180 Wire Feed Welder, CT will have it on special at 599$ in june. No plasma cutter though but you can weld alu as well, just need to get the Co2 bottle. Man I need some serious thinking, cuz at 599$ it's a no brainer and I could finish the exhaust soon, none the less the wife would not argue versus the 1600$ for the multi station, I mean the 1000$ difference can be put on the garden furniture that she want, sound like a way to make every one happy. Thanks for helping me set my priorities strait, sound like I'm going to run to the local CT store and see if they can get me the special pricing now.

Thanks a bunch.

AA

 

Like I said above I have one of the Lincoln 180s. It's my first welder and I like it. I guess with MIG, aluminum welding with DC is OK. Also for aluminum the gas you want is 100% argon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lincoln Electric

For aluminum, 100 percent argon is the gas of choice, whereas steel welding calls for a mixed gas or 100 percent CO2 gas.

That's the smartest thing I've heard all day. You can't be the only one getting new toys.

 

Oh I see ! So basically I will have to get 2 bottle, one for Argon and one for CO2.

Thanks for the kind words that give me something to though.

 

Here is some fresh pics with my new camera:

 

2 more:

 

looks amazing AA!

 

Looking good my friend

 

Very nice. Attention to detail to the extreme.

 

Hey guys, I have worked on the car all day and fixed a bunch of stuff, I can now say that I am very close from cranking the engine.

Now all the fluids are in, today I put the coolant and the P/S fluid. I had a leak on the coolant pipe in the front, I torqued the bolts to 15lbs/in but still there is a drop once in a while, so I'm wondering if it's because there is supposed to be 2 gasket there or because I didn't use high temp silicon ? I remember there was 2 gasket on the kit that I bought but didnt't bother to put both. There was also a very small leak on one of the bolt on the engine oil pan, the bolt was stripped and I had forgot about that, so I just tapped in a bigger bolt and torqued it to spec. I spent a good 2 hours torquing all the bolts and nuts I could have access to. The battery box frame is also finished, this required à lot of fabrication. I had previously bought a Taylor battery box from Summit racing and so the battery is now in the truck and solidly fixed. I also put 2 new ground I want to make sure I have good ground to engine and tranny. I was nervous to turn the key in the ignition, to my surprise, the lighting came on, the headlight work, there was a strange noise coming from the engine bay, I think it was the starter but I didn't look further since I was pretty exhausted. I didn't try to start the car since the exhaust is not installed and there is no gas in the tank but I will take care of this tomorrow. The cluster seem to worked, the usual lighting came on ( ABS TCS etc ) I could also see the car mileage, the headlight and angel eye came on, turn signal etc. I'm pretty happy of my day, and will try to finish with the exhaust tomorrow.

 

May have been the IACV noise, or from the auto tranny

 

I'm going to take a look at this now, but I think it may have to do with the way the wiring is done on the starter. I used a plastic box to inclosed the connections to isolated from the car chassis, I'm going to check my connection.

 

I see that .043 is the standard gap for spark plug, can anyone confirm this ?

I had to remove the intake manifold this am, since I didn't recall if torqued the rear valve cover to spec, it was a good call since they were not torqued. I also torqued the LIM to spec while there. I also found a 1/4 inche short ratchet extension that I had lost, it was underneath the LIM, I dont know how it end-up there, but anyhow it will be better to have it in the tool box. The rear O2 sensor was not completely bolted on the headers so I took care of that, and also installed a bracket that hold a brake line and the rack & pignon line to the fire wall, this bracket allowed me to install a heat shield that I couldn't figure how to install. I'm taking a quick bite and then I'm going to put back the UIM and hook up all the hoses and vacuum but that should be done in an hour. After I want to install the Y-pipe section of the headers and the rest of the exhaust line. I still have a very light leak on the front coolant pipe, I found the second gasket so I'm going to add it and see if that fix the leak. I put the key back in the ignition this morning and the noise that I heard yesterday was coming from the starter, it stop after few second. I also crank the starter a split second and the engine turned wich is a good sign. I need to go get some gas later, it look like I might be able to crank her later today, I cross my finger to not get stuck on some crap but so far so good. I also added some brake fluid and to my surprise nothing leak so I hope it stay that way. lol

 

Sounds good.

0.043 is the stock gap. But you might as well gap it to about .035-.038 for boost(since you have the coil booster)

 

I left the plug at .043 but I'll do .038 as per your suggestion. On the coil booster there is a wire that goes to the battery negative, can I just ground it to the chassis ? I took me longer to install the UIM and all the hoses with vacuum. I have put 5 gallon of super in the gas tank, I now just need to install the exhaust, I hope to finish that after dinner and hopefully crank the ***** tonight. I ear a little buzz sound that come from the tranny I hope there is nothing wrong there anyway. I'll keep ya posted later tonight.

 

Yes you can ground it to the chassis. I used to get that buzz sound from the tranny, it is normal.

Crank it open header

 

I have installed the exhaust line. I didn't had the time to regap the plug though. I finally crank her up for maybe 2-3 minutes but the engine didn't start. I removed one of the plug and it was dry so there is no gas coming. I only put 3 gallon in the tank since I only had this container available, so that might not be enough. The other thing I'm wondering is, I have a wallbro intank fuel pump and I'm using the original FPR, I remember I was suggested to get a Nismo Adjustable FPR could that be the culprit ? I'm going to put more gas in the tank tomorrow and see if there is some spark. One of the O2 sensor is not hooked up on the exhaust line but that will be done tomorrow, that's pretty much what I'm thinking for now.

 

The car should still start with the stock FPR but it won't run well.

Yeah get the Nismo, I think I posted a pic of mine a while back but here it is again.




You can see the FPR and gauge in those pics. I have the universal one but I heard the regular one bolts right on to the rail.

 

when you installed the walbro did you reuse your stock strainer (is that what sucks up the fuel?)? or the one that came with it? is it getting power?

 

I re-used the stock strainer since the one supplied with the wallbro did not fit well, if I recall it had an angle and I was unable to fit it on the fuel assembly. I still have it so I'm going to take a look at it tomorrow. I need to check if the power goes to the pump it's something I didn't had time to check. I finished to installed the exhaust it was 10:45 pm, I just wanted to give it a shot and see what happen, but in all honesty I knew it would not start right away there is so many variable. Thanks for the help, I'm going to order a Nismo FPR and a gauge so I can see what pressure I have. BTW what is the base pressure suggested N/A ?

 

well no, youre ok. i was going to say i dont think its a good idea to use the walbro one because i read somewhere that its shorter (?) and doesnt get as deep into the fuel as the stock ones do. something of that nature...people were installing them and running out of gas at near 1/8-1/4 tank.

 

The strainer that is supply with the Walbro FP, has an angle on it and doesn't go as deep as the stocker. Today I had other stuff to take care so I didn't touch the car, but i will work on it after diner. First thing I'm doing is to put more gas in the tank, then I'm going to verify if there is power to the fuel pump, I need also to make a better ground for the voltage booster I'm using, if time allow I'm going to re-gap the plug to .038

That would be cool if the engine start tonight, but even though I have a lot of work left. I have to put the front door, hood, fenders, bumpers and the windshield washer tank wich I want to relocate in the trunk. I have to cut and weld the piping for the second muffler, fabricate both muffler heat shield with Diamond Plate aluminum and bolt it to the chassis frame that was fabricate and weld underneath the rear of the car. For the summer I want to give the car a complete compound but paint both muffler, replace the front windshield. The interior of the car need a thorough cleaning. As you can see I'm far from done.

 

Base pressure NA or boosted is always around 35-38 under vacuum. With the vac hose disconnected, the pressure should be around 43.

I did not use the walbro strainer either, I used a puralotor one from advanced auto, I actually liked it better than the OEM one.

 

Thanks for this info. I check the voltage on the connector on top of the gas tank and the voltage is good, then I though of removing the fuel assembly to check further, I then proceed by removing the line on the driver side on top of the tank, but I didn't though about the pressure so big mistake the gas was flowing inside the car but I plugged it back so it was a minor spill, then I figured out the problem is not there so I just closed the cover and plug the connector.

It got me thinking, could I have mistakenly inverted the feed & the return in the engine ? But before trying anything and spilling gas all over the place again, i though of posting and see what info I can get. I know I got pressure, but I dont know if the gas get into the engine, I mean the engine doesn't smell gas. Should I just unplug an injector and see if it flow when I crank the engine ? The walbro fuel pump work fine otherwise I wouldn't have pressure.

 

Well if there is pressure, we can assume that the injectors are not firing. The FPR is on the return line, not sure if it matters which side of the rail gets fuel first as long as the FPR is in the correct location.

Now if the injectors arent firing... I gotta get back to you on that

 

Tomorrow I will take some close pics of my set-up so maybe you can tell me if I got something wrong cuz I'm dead now and got to get-up very early in the morning.

I'm wondering if the injector could be clogged, tomorrow I'm going to remove one and see if it fire.

Thanks for the support it is much appreciate.

 

Yeah I can def take a look at it. Ill be gone for the weekend but I can check it out on my phone.

 

you might be ok, and you may have already done it, but i would plug that drainback plate if you could. wouldnt wanna risk any oil flinging out of there and getting all over that shiny engine!

 

I made a plug so the oil doesn't get out from there, it's such a PITA to remove the cover out I didn't want to have to do it. Thanks for the advice anyway.

 

I think the stock FPR has a different connection type if I not mistaking, I will take a look at this over the week-end.

I'll grab my Canon and take some pics tonight.


Thanks again for your input.

 

You're just having a few labor pains before the 'birth' of your new setup lol....btw, is it not easier to just pull the fuel rail vs removing the injector? Then again, your injector o rings might be in better shape than mine were. I couldn't hardly remove them without nearly breaking the injector (wd 40, twisting back and forth)...

And I didn't even think about that walbro strainer being shorter....I installed one a couple of years back and the first week after, my wife ran out of gas on a steep hill. I thought I had knocked the fuel gauge unit loose or something so that's good to know!

Keep up the great work!

Jeremy

 

Hey Jeremy, your absolutedly right. The good thing is I'm a very passionate person, I dont fight what happen, to me what happen is the reality of things and I deal with it, to be honest that is what I like. I know I'm close to earing the nice growling sound of that engine again, if this happend tomorrow the next day or in a month that is fine. Since the engine has been put together no so far ago, I think removing an injector make sense, I have a doubt about the injectors, I remember that they have been on the garage counter for quite sometime, I cleaned it but what do I know about cleaning injectors ? I'd say close to nothing. Lol so they might be clogged, if that is the case I might decide to buy bigger one alone with the FPR but that brings another variable in the equation. Long story short I will start to pull one injector and see if it spray when I crank the engine, will see then. I might check this out in the next hour but most probably over the rainy week-end.

P.S: I see you are from memphis, TN. I always wanted to visit the city, and see where Elvis lived, I know it was long time ago but what a great singer he was, I still remember the day he pass away, I was 17 at that time...

Thanks for the good words.

 

I just pulled a plug and first it doesn't smell gas, second I had my friend to crank the engine while I kept a plug into the coil to the chassis and there is no spark, so it must be related to the amp I have tapped in, I'm going to put it back stock without the amp and see if I have a spark. In any eventuality that I still do not have a spark, what could be the culprit ? Bad coil, ECU ? I only check one of the coil but I find it a little suspicious.
Everything related to electrical works fine, door lock, radio, all the light, I have yet to find something that doesn't work electric wise.

 

where do you have the engine harness grounded

 

The main harness is grounded to the timing chain cover, look at pics #1 on the post 1209 in this page. I have 2 big ground one from the head to the chassis and one from the timing chain cover to the chassis and another one from the tranny to the head. I might just put a wire diretly from the battery negative to the engine bay and make a direct ground.

 

I dont know where my head was when I answered you about the injectors... I might be able to remove one injectors without removing the entire fuel rail and UIM. I'll work on this tonight.