Soldering O2 sensor

[kwheeler]

Ok, this is going to sound like a stupid question but I'm asking it anyway.

Last night I removed a bad O2 sensor and in the process stripped the threads in the O2 housing. I looked at them and decided there was enough there to thread the new sensor in and get it to seat. Well, long story short, it didn't work and ended up stripping the threads on the sensor itself.

So heres the question. Would it work to use solder to hold the O2 sensor in the housing?

The idea is to thread the sensor in as far as it'll go and then seal the area around the sensor base to the housing with solder. I'm concerned about getting the sensor to hot while doing this as I'll have to use a torch to melt the solder and that the solder won't stand up to the heat of the exhaust.

What do you guys think, would it work?

Yeah, I know, stop being cheap and go get a new O2 housing and a new sensor.
Cheap is my nature (I own a DSM after all), I don't mind spending $20.00 on a housing but the $80.00 for another new sensor!!

kwheeler

 

[Splitpi]

I don't know if the solder will react with the sensor tip. But you won't get the temperature hot enough to flow solder into the crevasis. I would recommend tack welding it on. Temperature wise, the heat of welding or soldering should not effect the sensor... it sits in extremely hot exhaust 24/7.

But due to the large amount metal and conductive properties of the metal, a little soldering iron may have problems heating the metal enough to be able to solder. Inaddition, the solder would most likely melt once the engine got hot.

My opinion of course.

 

[spoonman]

Solder would melt at higher exhaust gas temperatures and the sensor would come loose. If you can weld the sensor in place, the sensor will be fine. Do not use a cold weld apoxy like JB weld as it will turn to mush as soon as the EGT's are around 500 Degrees. If you can find it some auto parts stores sell exhaust putty that is an extreme high heat apoxy to fill exhaust holes with, this could be applied on the threads and around the out side of the O2 sensor to make a tight seal.

 

[kwheeler]

Ok, I have a MIG welder.
Let me make sure I understand what you guys are saying.

If I use tack welds the sensor will be fine. Sort of like welding very thin sheet metal, correct?
Place a tack, let it cool, place another tack, let it cool, repeat until done.

I'm going to give it a try and let you know how it turns out.

kwheeler

 

[kwheeler]

Well, it turned out I didn't need to weld the sensor in.
I pulled the O2 housing, removed the crush seal from the sensor and threaded it as far into the housing as I could in preparation for tacking it in. It turned out that once I got it thread far enough it grabbed and held. I was able to thread it all the way in so that the base of the hex portion seated against the O2 housing.
Once I got it that far I decided not to weld it and then used some high temp exhaust system seal I found at Napa. The stuff is made by VersaChem and is called "Exhaust system seam and crack seal".
It hardens in about 2 hours and gets harder with high temperatures.

It took me about 2 hours to reinstall the O2 housing and perform an oil change, then I took the car for a spin. It ran good but it'll take few days to get enough miles on it to see if the CEL comes back on.

So, it appears everything turned out all right.

The next project will be installing a new transmission.

kwheeler