So I got a bit overzealous with the angle grinder and I have sanded into one of the screw holes for the throttle bodies. Worth trying to fix or just get new plenum? (and possibly opt for powder coating next time... ) Other photos of Plenum Pull:
Get a new plenum.... and for the love of god, dont grind the shit out of it. You'll never get a smooth polished surface if youve gouged into it like that.
Cant see it being a big problem? The plenum chamber has not been breached at all. I cant even see the throttle body bolt being affected...
That's a fair point... Tell you what if you smoothed the surface out that plenum might come up nice with powdercoat or ceramic coating. Might even fill that little hole in.
Any fabrication shop that works with alloy will drop a weld on there for you in 20 seconds flat. Some might not even charge you, but you'd get out of it pretty cheap if you know where to look.
Isnt that another, larger hole further down from your circled one? cant comment on coated. Polished will look like arse. You'll never get the lines on the runners smooth. Might eventually look so, but the moment sunlight hits it, will have lines all over the place. Ditch it and get another.
I think I might just take it to get powder coated and see if they can weld it and smooth it out a bit... The thing about welding it is if I polish it, would you be able to see a kind of blob on the corner there?
Nah thats not a hole its just the end of the throttle body. It's actually not that bad its quite smooth, the sun on it makes it look all cut up. This is was the first sand at 120, i still have 500, 600, 800, 1000 to go before it looks smooth. I'm just thinking that a blob of weld on there is going to look no good!
If it's mig or tig welded up, then you'd probably look at a 5356 grade filler material, which covers most of the 4xxx 5xxx 6xxx series alloys. Once you grind down past the weld bead, and assuming they weld it without any porosity, then you'd be hard pressed noticing a difference. This will help you get your head around what needs to be done: http://www.bocworldofwelding.com.au/media/pdf/WELDING CONSUMABLES-Aluminium.pdf
I wouldnt bother with any of that. Depends on how finiky you are. I wouldnt have blinked an eye or cared less. You wont be able to notice it when its all together.
Why exactly do you need to replace the plenum? Lump of weld, or just leave it. It's not like it'll leak.
