Skip to main content
Gerry | Vanagon
Checking account...
← vanagon.com home · Continue the discussion in the forum
Subject:Re: 2.1 head repair / JB Weld Musings
From:Rico Sapolich
Date:Mon, 15 Jan 2001 23:41:25 EST

In a message dated 1/15/01 4:11:30 PM, dgalcock@HEWITT.COM writes:

<< Sam Walters' "culled from the archives" treatise (all 11 pages of it) on
JBWelding your leaky cylinder heads is now at http://www.vanagon.org >>

On this forum, I have often read of using JB Weld to fill corrosion pits on 
heads.  I wonder how suitable that really is.  I have only used JB Weld once 
as a grout on a semi-precision leveling job and it seemed to me to be about 
the same as Devcon Plastic Steel Putty.  The maximum operating temperature of 
Plastic Steel, and most other Devcon putties, is 250˚F.  The few Devcon 
products, such as their Titanium Putty, which have higher operating 
temperatures cost about 10 times as much as JB Weld, so, I tend to believe 
that the JB product is probably rated for the lower operating temperature.  
Perhaps the use of the word 'weld' in its name relays a false sense of 
prowess.  Someone even recently wrote of using it on the exhaust system.

With this in mind, I recently noticed a product announcement in a 
metalworking trade journal which may be of interest to some.  The product is 
Durabond 7032 Metallic Stainless Putty made by Cotronics Corp. of Brooklyn, 
NY.  It "fills, bonds, protects and repairs to 2000˚F . . . cures at room 
temperature to form a machinable composite with high bond strength "  You 
read that correctly, 2000 DEGREES F.  I am sure this stuff is not cheap, but 
think of the possibilities.  As a group purchase, we could buy a barrel of 
7032 then have a lister who is familiar with lost wax casting replicate 2.1 
heads in beeswax.  Then, we find someone with forearms like Popeye, fill one 
of those cattle insemination syringes with 7032, and pump the stuff into the 
molds.  In short order, AMC would be coming to US for heads.  

Rich