Media Blasting Heads?....Input Needed
 

Hi All,

I have a question about cleaning the heads on my 3.0l. The valves guides are in good shape, as well as the valve seats, so I'm thinking there is no need for any other work other than cleaning. It is my understanding that the best way to do this is to media blast them. I understand to remove the valves and plug the guides with a nut and bolt to prevent damage. However, will media blasting damage the valve seats? Is there any other way to clean them (especially the crud in the ports)?

Thanks for the input.
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You really should disassemble the whole head and measure everything carefully. To answer your question, I don't think media blasting (generally) will damage your seats. Depends on what media you're using.

Spherical beads (glass bead) will remove carbon and surface residue. This media is inert and leaves no residue and should not change the dimensions. When you get them apart clean the valve stems and guides with brake clean then check them and take a good look at the sealing surfaces.

Remove all the hardware, degrease then plug the valve guides with a long nut and bolt, blast with glass bead at around 60 psi.

Air blast throughly after bead blast to make sure all glass bead has been removed.

Thanks Guys,

Ya, I have disassembled all the heads and checked the dimensions (and sealing) and everything looks great (that was why I was concerned about the media blasting damaging the seats). It sounds as though the glass bead at 60psi is the safe way to go. Thanks for all the input. This Board Rocks!

Dan, Where in MI are you? West side by any chance?

Bob from Atlantic Anchor, who does a fantastic job at rebuilding those heads, uses an ultrasonic bath to clean them: http://www.anchoratlantic.com/aaenter.html

Aurel

I would never use glass beads on an engine part.

Soda blast removed carbon very quickly and easily without damaging anything. Blast away on the valves and head, rockers - everything in the engine. Clean up with water. You will not believe how easy soda removes the carbon on valves, heads and pistons.

You can get a hand held gravity feed blaster from lots of sources including McMaster Carr. Or you could take the parts to someone with a blast cabinet set up for soda.

Pics of 356 engine parts before and after soda blasting.
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+1 on soda blasting.

IMHO, thats the only way to do this. :)

I bought a soda blaster for $250 for this purpose and it has paid itself several times over already. The fact that the soda washes off and won't embed like glass beads is priceless. Not to mention, you can do it anywhere and use a garden hose to clean up!

Another thing about soda blasting. You don't have to degrease before you start. You don't have to do anything to the part. You can unbolt a nasty part from an engine or other component and put it straight in the blast cabinet dripping oil if you want. It comes out very clean in minimum time and does not mess up the blast cabinet. The soda mixes with the oil or grease and goes right out the bottom into the collector bucket. Or in the case of a hand held blaster right onto a throw away tarp. It want damage valve guides or seats. Actually makes anodized aluminum look and feel better. Those with restored Fuchs wheels that are anodized would find that soda blasting right on the car with the hand held blaster is the best way to clean them if they are beyond washing with soap and water.

It will strip paint. Also you would not want to try to clean a plastic part like tail light lenses.

Think of soda as "cleaning" as in parts washer cleaning but easier. Not as "stripping" as with bead blasting or sand blasting.

I haven't tried dry ice but am thinking that might be better than soda in that there is virtually no clean up to do on the blasted parts. However I am thinking that the equipment is probably to expensive for the home shop or small commercial shop.

Do I need to modify my current blast cabinet or just put the Soda blast media in?

Soda is a one time use media (although if not to dirty I have used it two and three times - the more you use it the more dust you get). You need a deliver system for the soda which amounts to a hopper with a valve at the bottom and a siphon hose that runs up to the gun. The bottom of the cabinet is open. The used soda and debris flows out the bottom and into a bucket.

This is the short version. You may find some diagrams or pictures doing a Google search. My cabinet is made by ABS and was set up for soda from the mfg.

http://www.abs-products.com/blast-cabinets/soda-blasters.shtml

edit: I had not been to their site before now - I think the site is new. The machine in the video is the model machine I have. I bought it off the floor at a trade show about 6 years ago. I had never heard of soda blasting but the first time I saw it I knew this was the answer and bought it on the spot. No one around here had heard of the process at that time. Now virtually every NASCAR shop has them. I don't know about his claim of running it with a 3hp compressor. I think it will take more, but 5 horse might get it done.

Also, don't discount the job that the small hand held blaster will do. The ABS guy told me about them the day I bought my machine. McMaster Carr has them.

Anyone have a recommendation for a hand held soda blaster?

Ok, here is some info for all interested. I got an Ultrasonic parts cleaner that heats the water and soap solution (in may case I set it to about 140 deg.)

These are two examples of what an Ultrasonic cleaning tank can do. I put one of my cam towers in the tank and turned the unit on and walk away for about 30min (no brushing, scrubbing or physical effort whatsoever).

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In this photo I hung 1/3 of my case half in the tank for about 45 min.


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Best part of all, after reusing the same water/soap solution for about a week, I filtered it out and had nothing more than dirty water solution to get rid of.

Every one I can find that size is VERY expensive. Which one did you go with?

I got a used Sonicor unit (about 20x15x15deep). I also found out that with the economy in the shape it currently is, there are many shops and individuals getting rid of tools and equipment for a song (all you have to do is look). I also got a soda blasting pod that I will try next.

Does anyone have any suggestions on where the cheapest place to get the soda media is? I can't seem to find it locally, only online.

I love my soda blaster. Great for Disgustingly grimy parts...take them outside, blast the layers of crap off and voila, done. Then rinse with water.

Blasting?
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Ultrasonic cleaning.
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You can buy the large bags of "soda" at pool supply houses.

+1 - my machinist uses a large ultrasonic machine, your machinist should have something like that... the machine uses heated water and dilute citrus along with vibration.. cleans'em right up. Does good on cam towers unless you like spending a few weekends cleaning them... like I did :(

How much and what is the grain size?

my brief reading on soda is that it is good because you can confidently get it all off. the down side is that it can be dusty and wears out... that's just my 2 cents.. I'm thinking of building a blast cab. so I'm interested in how it works out.

Soda is meant to be disposable. One use is about all it is good for. Use it to strip oily parts without parts cleaning first.

John, could you tell us what blasting material was used in the first photo? Was it Soda Blasted?

Kenik,
What blaster are you using? Manufacturer, etc.

regards,

al

Dan, I think that first photo is a combination of corrosion from the engine sitting (note it's on the exhaust side where water accumulates) and glass bead. I used to run a soda blasting business (in Michigan, as a matter of fact) and the basic Armex isn't aggressive enough to do that unless the substrate is weak (as it certainly was, being made of aluminum oxide. . .)

The portable one:
http://www.ace-sandblasting.com/soda-blasting.html

kenik... will this work to remove the underbody black coating... I am having a name block in my brain now...?
Thx Bob

Undercoating is pretty burly; not sure if the armex media has enough bite.

Gene @ ACE equated it as using an eraser to remove it...it will work he said, all be it slower than a more aggressive media.
Thx for your info and post Kenik
Do you have one of these machines and if so, how does it work?
Do you know if these are avail to rent??
Bob

The small one. If it is slow that is going to be expensive on media...

tempting to go buy the 2-PS, strip the tub I am restoring in 1 day and be ready for paint in a heart beat... seems too easy... must be a catch... Gene said 10-12 of the 50# bags of Flow-XL @ $~30/bag = $300 for the media... sell the blaster for 750 when done and I have a tub ready for paint in 1 day for $1,100.00 !!!

i would venture a guess that those pits were already there and not because of glass beading.

Would those pits be repairable with by a skilled welder?

Your guess as good as mine JW, the blasting was done before these were sold to me with no disclosure they were junk. I would have saved the shipping, I got two usable heads out of six, and one of them I sent for nada to our friend Rich Lambert. The other waits for an SWB owner in need: my Porsche Karma could use a booster shot.

Buck. . . IF those heads were 69S the only sound you would be hearing from me would be the zzzt-zzzt-zzzt of tungsten in a shielding box full of argon. . . unfortunately they are 66 normal heads, nailhead valves, whopper 32mm ports and combustion chambers so deep you could comfortably eat one of those mini boxes of Frosted Flakes out of them (which I may do on a dare when my car finally is ready for concours). In short, they are paperweights, conversation pieces, boat anchors.

John, and John,

I have a set of heads here that I bought (3.2) that look like the ones pictured, and that was before I bead blasted them. There was no difference in them as a result of the blasting, it was all corrosion. They were sold as "rebuildable" but that is another story, they are junk......

Cheers

I have a Harbor Freight pressure blasting unit that I have converted to work with my Eastwood blast cabinet. It works great with glass bead. I'll bet I could convert it to soda blasting.

Anyone have any ideas?

Is the soda medium a one time use? What is the cost?

from what I know tom the soda is a 1x use as when it hits the surface being worked on the crystal structure of the soda disentegrates and turns into real fine powder (unuseable) thus doing its job of removing the media.
Some reuse the powder but it works ~ 20% as well as the original and takes a ton more time to get it to do any removal as it is truely powder at that point.
Cost is $25~30 / 50# bag of the well known Arm& Hammer brand "Arm-X", Flow XL".
All of this info is per Gene @ ACE as I called the guy yesterday after "kenikh" above posted the source
Good luck!
Bob

Soda Blasting works great on teeth too! :)
Had it done on Friday. White powder was flying everywhere! My face was covered, but my teeth were really clean and smooth.