stick welding old thin header tubes?

Holy cow, whats the trick? Im trying to use 5/32 E6011 rod, set the buzzbox as low as it can go and cant strike an arc, move it up to about 40 and I can get an arc, but I blow right through the tube. Now this stiff is pretty thin old crap, not your 16G new header stuff. I guess I could MIG it but the stick seems to give a better bead. The flux mig I use (no filled bottle yet) looks like pretty bad after Im done, very built up, looks like no penetration, although welding super thin tube cat get much penetration. Any tips?