Told I need new head if I want to fix an exhaust leak

It depends on the material the cylinder head is made of. Why are you guys saying welding will not work? I disagree highly as I have seen it work before. Certainly worth a try before removing the head. The keen sert seems like the best option, but why so harsh on welding the hole then re-drilling it? The one bolt hole in the cylinder head is not receiving 1400 degrees all the time, and cherry red hot steel is not always going to fall apart because it was welded and re-drilled.

 

Welding would damage the injectors

 

Cast also has a bad habit of spider webbing when welded. Now I'm not talking about welding a washer and nut on a broke stud to get it out. I'm talking about filling an empty hole with nickel rod.

 

Besides that, a weld is harder than the metal around it. Drilling through it won't be as easy as it sounds.

Welding wasn't as hazardous to the vehicles back before they had computers controlling everything and countless electronic sensors to let the computers know what's going on. Computers and electronic sensors don't like high amperage.

 

welding would not damage the injectors they are like in the center of the head, when welding it you need an oxy and heat up glowing red right around before you weld otherwise it will crack around (cast iron)

 

If you can get to it easily, I would go with what BCK said....

 

I would just use some mig wire in there, I personally have not done it, but I know of two trucks this super slick old school mechanic in my shop has squared away doing just what was spoken about above.

The high amperage does have the potential to damage electronic components, but its not as likely to happen as many people would think. That being said, put a Cascadia in front of me requiring welding on the expensive end of the truck, I would take some precautions as to not damage anything. The correct engineering way to assure no module damage is to disconnect the power and ground directly to the ecm itself.

When I worked on mrap's with non acert c7s, Allison 3500 wtecIII, wabco ABS, and dana CTIS, coworkers and myself would weld on the blast trucks that still ran with everything hooked up, no problems with any of the electronics on those, though we weren't driving them much.

 

p.s. To clarify by what I meant of just using mig wire, if I had to weld up an exhaust manifold bolt hole, I would choose to go with mig. I think the insert kit is still the best option, I don't know if I would go and pull a perfectly good head for one little bolt hole having problems.