Welding an XJ oil pan?

While I've got my bike apart, I was considering welding the oil pan to fill in a hole where I had mounted an oil temp sensor. It's not leaking, but the oil temp sensor isn't needed anymore... I went with a block temp sensor instead, and I worry that it will start leaking at some point.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone had welded one of these before? Are they aluminum or some other alloy? Are they cast aluminum that makes a mess when you try to weld on it, or some more reasonable form?

I have an AC TIG setup and have done other aluminum welding. But I've never welded magnesium and I have not had good luck with a piece of cast aluminum fuel rail that I used for some practice....

 

Aluminum. Why don’t you just tap it and thread a plug in with Teflon tape and/or yamabond?

 

That's what I have with the oil temp sensor in there now. I'd rather fix it properly while I've got the pan off the engine.

 

Buy another, cheap as chips.

 

I probably have one around here, too—

 

You can weld it if you have a tig, just make sure it's clean first.

 

Where did I read it.....perhaps the factory service manual?.........I believe the oil pans (and the oil pans only) are made from magnesium or an alloy of such. This is from the XJ900 service "guide" (not the service "manual") so it may only apply to those models (and XJ700 models, which share the same pan).

 

Hope not. Mg filler rod is stupid expensive - like $90/lb. I wonder if my local shop sells them individually. I need to check on some good methods to tell whether something is Al or Mg...

Ah, found one. Battery acid eats magnesium but not aluminum.

 

Vinegar fizzes on mag, not on al

 

Good to know......