Safe to bead blast early heads?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I'm buying a set of 69S heads that sat in a race engine for years. Looks like 2 cylinders had water in them. I could just send to Anchor Atlantic and have Bob disassemble and clean but was wondering what soft glass bead would do to the valve stems if I blasted the ports.

[Matt Monson]

Use walnut shells.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Thanks Matt. I have glass bead and getting in some TP Tools "First Choice" which is what they recommend for everything from rust clean up to cleaning up trailing arms. I'll see if I can find walnut shells locally, if not, just send to Bob.

[jhg41977]

Or soda

[vascott01]

If you are taking the whole heads apart just make sure to clean every thing many many times. and then clean again...the little suckers get into everything. and then when you are done clean again..

Otherwise. I am very happy with what Bob did...Great job and a peace of mind..

[cgarr]

If they had water in them be prepared to replace some seats:

[Steve@Rennsport]

We use soda, only for heads.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Thank you all Gentlemen. I'll try to take some better pics today. Here's what I should be purchasing. I have soda as well.

[tom1394racing]

Shaun

I disassemble them and protect the guides with a long nut and bolt inserted through them. I bead blast with fine grit at 60 psi to clean them up for inspection. Never seen any damage from low pressure bead blasting.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I took what looked like the worst head, and the best head, and had at them for a few minutes with soda. One concern, how do the MFI injector bolts/plugs come out? This car had carbs.

My sense is there are only 4 good heads here, other two will need big money to restore.