The pan is nearing final welding stage. The plan is to cut/bend all of the pieces, and fit and TIG weld them together. Once the " pan" part of the thing is all welded together, I weld all of that to the pan rail that is bolted to the block using the mig.
I can TIG the 16 ga stuff pretty confidently..as long as it's not an " inside corner". For whatever reason I simply cannot do that ( yet). I've tried it several times now, and I'll just get the metal too damn hot. And excessive heat equals sheet metal distortion and warpage.
The pan rail is not only an inside corner, but also the merge point for two different metal thicknesses....just begging for me to make a flaming mess out of the whole thing if I tried to Tig that.
So........no says the finger.
But when we start talking about Mig welding....I am a Shaolin master of Mig welding..practiced in the style of the Dung fao technique ( by far the most deadly). When it comes to mig welding, my skills are so lethal, I could cut off your ear, and weld it back on your head before you even realized you were in pain.
Well...if your head was made out of steel that is....
And your ear....that would have to be steel too.
I haven't mastered flesh welding ...I'm only at the "OWWW SON-OF-A-BITCH!!!" Level of flesh "burning"... Which I've gotten really good at. it's a slow process, and I have to practice on myself, which has taken years to master, but l just gotta say this...
Ain't nobody here better at burning the piss outta themselves than me.
As for the flesh welding part....not quite there...........yet. But I'm working on that too.
Anyway,....I digress.
Mig welding the pan rail to the pan will have the unfortunate side effect of heat related warpage. So if I have any hope of the thing ever fitting again I'll have to go slow, move around a lot, and keep the thing bolted to the block. The -16 weld bungs are on the side of the pan for the external pick up tube, as is the turbo oil return and drain plug fittings. ( those freakin -16 weld fittings are gi-gandor..and the hose ends and hose is just freakin huge..) I hope to hell that it doesn't interfere with me putting the engine where it needs to go when it comes time to fit that.
I hope to have the same oil capacity as these things have stock, which is around 5.5 Qts. I'll have to get me some more mineral spirits so I can fill the thing, and check it after its all welded. If it doesn't hold that, It's too freakin late now, the pan dimensions are set. About the only thing I could do to add capacity would be to tie the front mounted oil cooler back in to the engine so that I'd have those lines, and an external oil filter or two to add oil capacity.
I really hadn't planned to do that however, but I'll deal with that when/if I have to.