Three different welding wires were used to study the effects of Al content on weld metal toughness and porosity formation in self-shielded arc welding. Weld metal microstructure showed that while wire with 1.3% Al content contains coarse $delta$-ferrite, wires with less than 0.5% Al content showed no such phase. In addition to the microstructural differences, cleanliness in weld metal was also different among wires. It showed that weld metal toughness was influenced by the $delta$-ferrite formation, cleanliness and Ni addition. Even though wires with less than 0.5% Al content showed higher weld metal toughness, they showed relatively poor workability, forming porosities in weld bead in lower arc voltages.