I spotted a crack in the tranny case

[Eagle_Summit]

Hmm, so I was browsing around in my engine bay and I noticed a small crack in my tranny cover (is that what you call it?) Its probably not even an inch long, deffinately smaller than that. But I guess im just curious about it and what could have caused it. Should I be worried ( well I am a bit nervous about it ). Hopefully I can take some pictures tomorrow of it. Also when your looking down at the engine bay and staring at the tranny case, its on the right side of the case.


Thx

 

[Defiant]

Is it really a crack, or just a ripple in the casting?

 

[Eagle_Summit]

to me it looks like a crack, and feels like a crack. HOPEFULLY, ill take some pictures tomorrow of it, maybe that will help you a bit. But if anything, i can put jb weld on it i suppose.

 

[Blue92]

I just recently saw some stuff on an infomercial and on thier website called Alumoly. It is melted with a propane torch and is used to fill/weld aluminum, for example a transmission bellhousing. It can be used to fill in the crack, if you have one. Haven't tried it, but it looks pretty cool.

 

[AWDgsx905speed]

There is also an epoxy made called defcon that bonds to aluminium and can be machined.

 

[Defiant]

Devcon was the original high-strength epoxy. It was used in the sixties to build up and reshape the runners in hotrodded intake manifolds, and in the heads. Great stuff. J-B Weld is pretty much the consumer's version of Devcon, although there were many to come along before JB hit the jackpot- there used to be a soda bottle with a golf ball epoxied onto it, with a little shelf of wood on one side, and a bunch of other crap attached, with the usual challenge to get any of it off- every auto parts counter had one, pre-JB.

The aluminum "welding" rod is also good stuff- it's kind of a brazing material for aluminum. Gas-welding aluminum also works, so long as you keep a good shield of flame around the repair area- the trick to welding aluminum with a torch is keeping the heat controlled: trouble comes when a much larger area than intended goes plastic and then rapidly to molten, a nuisance because it conducts heat almost too well. Most common cast-aluminum alloys start to go plastic around 400°-450° degrees, and then splash, you have a puddle. The "welding" rod has a much lower melting point, and will bond with the parent metal much easier- it just requires that the repair areas be cleaned down to raw aluminum to get it to bond. Aluminum stays good-looking because it oxidizes so rapidly, and the oxidized surface is very robust, yet still attractive. The aluminum rod is readily workable with propane-torch temperatures.