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Best way to repair sintered metal parts?

I mentioned the Vega engine to a mate that works in engine development and he found it hard to believe they went all that trouble developing the block process then put an iron head on it to save money but then maybe that was GMs way. I do remember back in the 70s the engine had a bad reputation.

IIRC one of the Mercedes Benz engines is the same, a V8 I think / /

I looked up what HIP was and I think you're right that wasn't what was used rather heating to a high temp and striking the powder pressing to consolidate the material. I noticed a youtube video on HIP so will watch that shortly.

Reply to
David Billington
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There were several basic engineering screw-ups, some so obvious that it was hard to believe.

You may remember the Cosworth version of the Vega, which had an aluminum, dual-cam Cosworth head on the same engine block. Some car enthusiast wrote a letter to one of the two big US sports-car magazines -- Sports Car Graphic or Road & Track -- and asked how you could tell a regular Vega from a Cosworth Vega. There was no obvious Cosworth insignia on the car; just one little badge somewhere.

"Look under the car," said the magazine editor. "If there's a puddle of oil under it, it's a regular Vega." d8-)

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Yes I was aware of a Cosworth version, maybe the wheels give it away as well. The oil leak maybe like the old joke about British bikes, it's not leaking oil just marking its territory!.

Reply to
David Billington

I do not know the Vega engine, but it sounds like the result of a process I have seen too many times. A senior executive gathers the engineering group and says, "We need to reduce the cost of goods by $100 and pull in the schedule by 2 months. Give me any ideas you have. Don't be bashful, we are just brainstorming here" After some silence he says, " Oh, come on, I know you have ideas." Finally some competent but naive fellow will meekly speak up and say, "well, we COULD do X, but of course that would mean Y." The fellow just assumed anyone in his right mind would never want Y to happen. The executive who does not really understand the technical implications of Y gets all excited, "Really! We can do that? That makes me very happy, lets do it!" As others around the table try to gently tell him the problem with that decision, he is not even listening as he mentally tallies his year end bonus.

Reply to
anorton

I don't know what happened with the Vega design. It had so much going for it when the first design ideas were made public; then they built it and the problems started cropping up; then the engineering details came out, and even us amateur car buffs said, "Whaaa?"

It's not like they didn't know about the differential expansion problems.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

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