The most widely used processes for girth welding of pipelines constructed from API X80 is mechanised GMAW and SMAW in combination with cellulosic electrodes.However,both of these processes face certain limitations.Mechanised GMAW is not suitable for tie-ins,applications in difficult terrain and due to high mobilisation cost for use on short sections.Whereas SMAW with cellulosic electrodes presents significant challenges in terms of satisfying weld metal strength(over)matching requirements and high risk of HACC that is particularly critical for high strength large diameter thick wall pipelines.Low hydrogen basic electrodes have also been increasingly used especially those designed for vertical down application.However,the cost of these consumables is high and due to the unique operational characteristics require extensive welder training.Self-shielded FCAW(SS-FCAW)consumables offer a feasible alternative to these limitations.However,in recent years an increasing number of cases have been reported where the use of the SS-FCAW process produced welds with extremely poor toughness particularly when applied to high strength line pipe.This paper describes some initial results of weld metal dilution effects on Charpy impact toughness,which is part of an ongoing investigation into the performance of SS-FCAW consumables.