Have you ever seen this?????

srxman72

srxman72

Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2010
Messages
99
Age
32
Location
Northshore, MA
Broken cylinder, have you ever seen this?????

I was taking the pipes off my new to me 02 SRX to change the chain case oil and just out of curiosity I looked up through the manifold on the pto cylinder and I saw a crack in the exhaust port and thought wtf? I took the manifold off and sure enough the crack extended almost all the way around one corner of the exhaust port. There was oil where the crack was but I just figured it was a bad gasket. I just wiggled the piece and it fell right off. I know this can be fixed but Ive just never seen this before, I'm thinking a casting flaw and the crack started on the parting line in the center of the port :dunno: . Sled runs perfect though

IMG_0425.jpg

IMG_0426.jpg

IMG_0427.jpg
 
Last edited:

Wow, I have never seen that happen before. You'll have to remove the cylinder and clean it up good then a good TIG welder should be able to reatach it to the cylinder. The problem will be getting the surface where the exhaust manifold makes contact to be flat and smooth. You may have to double up on the exhaust gasket, depends on how good you can get the surface. You might be better off replacing the cylinder. TIG welding cast aluminum can be difficult.

Jim
 
I think i would replace the cyl. Maybe have that one welded for a back up in case you pop a piston mid-season or something.
After welding, i would make sure the bore didnt get out of round or didtorted from the weld heat.
 
You could fix it, but I think it would be easier and cheaper in the long run to just replace it with a good used cylinder.

need alot of tig welding, then grind off excess inside exh port. Like mentioned it will need a fair amount of heat and 1 other thing is its contaminated with oil. When you apply heat with the tig, it will draw the oil out of the porus aluminum and contaminate the weld. It will be interesting to say the least to get a good clean weld. Not saying you cant do it, but even after you clean aluminum with brake clean,etc, youd be suprised at how much more stuff comes out of the pores with heat!

just my opinion, cut your loss and move on by changing the cylinder.
 
Just in case someone else encounters this, I ended up getting my cylinder welded. The guy that fixed it said he's seen many skidoo cylinders like this and blamed it on a loose manifold bolt. This makes sense especially because the corner that broke is the one that's hardest to get a wrench on. I put new rings and gaskets in while I had it apart. I rode the sled a little over 100 miles since getting fixed and it runs great. Here are some pics.

IMG_1466.jpg

IMG_1468.jpg

IMG_1470.jpg
 
Hard to say how much it cost to weld because I had a friend of a friend do it. Normally he would have charged $80-100 is my guess. I used brake cleaner to clean while I had it apart. Sled has about 4300 miles.
 
Very nice TIG welding. Welding castings is always difficult, even if it was not exposed to gas and oil. Nice job.

Jim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top