Soda blasting my engine

[Mr Mach1]

I want to give my block & heads a fresh aluminum look. Anyone done it to an assembled engine before? I'll be sure to block all the ports & passages. Sweet part is it won'y hurt the shiney bits. Fresh aluminum & shiney black barrels will look awsome. Any thoughts ?

[Tintin]

Sweet part is it won'y hurt the shiney bits.

That's not true at least if you refer to polished aluminium as "shiney bits". I had some Triumph engine castings soda-blasted and was surprised by the amount of roughness that left on the polished timing and primary covers - it took quite some time even on a good 10" polishing wheel to get only a bit of shine back into these parts. Never again. Plus it doesn't look exactly like a casting anymore. I had a bare Norton crank case cleaned in a pro-quality parts washer and subsequently in an ultrasonic bath and that looks incredible.

If you just want to clean it use dry ice blasting - however be warned as the debris will still find a way into the engine somehow. I'd stick to more conventional methods just for cleaning an engine up in situ.

Soda blasting is perfect for GRP structures as long as the substrate is well cleaned subsequently. There is some special products for that (also highly recommended for metallic substrates btw).


Tim

[Mr Mach1]

Don't have a dry ice blaster . Just sand & a soda blaster. I basically wanted to remove some paint that is on the lifter blocks. I planned to mask off the shiney bits regardless. Last thing I need is more work.