I have some motorcycle parts I want to cast.

In my experience with Al castings,

they are on the brittle side. Unlike castings, extruded Al and similar will bend
a fair amount before cracking. Any way to make castings more malleable?
Most of the parts I have in mind are strictly ornamental. I shy away from stuff
that life and limb depends on. But I would consider some parts that I wouldn't o
therwise consider, if I could make the parts less brittle.
Heat treating? Or?
It depends on why they're brittle in the first place.
First thing to check is the alloy. Some alloys are more brittle than others. Hig
h-Si alloys (the really good casting alloys, like 356) tend to be fairly brittle
(circa 5% elongation before fracture) whereas extrusion alloys like 6061 might
have 20-30% elongation as cast. (I believe it's about 10% for 6061-T6, but I don
't remember exactly. In any case, heat treating is kind of a pain, though it is
possible to do in a BYMC setting with reasonable results.)
Second thing to check: Iron contamination! If you're melting in a steel crucible
, your castings are going to be more brittle than the alloy you started out with
. If you're casting something like 6061 and not doing a heat treat, then you may
actually desire a little more hardness, because as-cast 6061 with no contaminat
ion is super soft and gummy (you can practically tie the vent wires into knots),
but if you want to form it after casting, then that's where to start. If you're
just worried about an alloy being excessively brittle and cracking during usage
, then you should start with a known good alloy (356 et al. is fine even though
it's not particularly malleable, because it's not so brittle that effective stre
ngth is reduced) and then not contaminate it. 356 plus iron contamination is alm
ost certain to be weaker than uncontaminated 356 ("too brittle"), whereas as-cas
t 6061 plus iron contamination might actually be stronger than the uncontaminate
d ("not brittle enough"), though it will certainly not respond to heat treatment
properly with contamination.
Also ensure that you're fluxing properly to remove dross inclusions. Inclusions
in a casting will weaken it and make it easier for cracks to propagate. You may
not see the inclusions (unless you have a huge dross problem) but you'll be able
to tell the difference in ductility between fluxed and unfluxed aluminum. Along
with fluxing is degassing (if you flux, you'll probably have to degas too, beca
use the flux will promote gas), because a severe gas problem will weaken the cas
ting. The degassing action also helps the flux do its job removing inclusions.
As far as heat treatment goes, it depends heavily on the alloy. Alloys like 6061
are usually heat treated to make them harder and stronger, and thus more brittl
e (because as-cast 6061 is almost uselessly soft), but if you have an alloy that
's particularly sensitive and was cooled fast during casting for whatever reason
, you might be able to anneal some of the stresses out of it to make it softer.
In general though, as-cast temper is pretty much an annealed temper, so heat tre
atment isn't going to help if you want more ductility. Also, many good cast allo
ys don't respond much to heat treatment or aren't intended to be heat treated, p
recisely because it's an extra manufacturing step that can be avoided by the use
of an alloy that doesn't need it.