Here's a great video showing dry-ice blasting which leaves no residue. I've also found mico cleaning in ilkley which is 30 minutes drive away.

This seems like a nice easy way to get my duratec block, head, etc all taken back to shiny new before lacquer is applied.

Does anyone have experience of this? It doesn't seem to be a DIY kind of arrangement.

Yes - I have used it to clean resin from moulds used in aerospace component manufacture. It required a lot of specialist kit and it is a very risky process in terms of health and safety. the only way we could do it was to have an external contractor do the work, at a weekend, in a fully isolated building, as the risk of breathing issues is very high. It was very effective however, and the moulds lokked beautifully clean afterwards.

quote:

---

Originally posted by twybrow
Yes - I have used it to clean resin from moulds used in aerospace component manufacture. It required a lot of specialist kit and it is a very risky process in terms of health and safety. the only way we could do it was to have an external contractor do the work, at a weekend, in a fully isolated building, as the risk of breathing issues is very high. It was very effective however, and the moulds lokked beautifully clean afterwards.

---

Indeed, outside, eye protection, gloves - blast away. But getting the dry ice pellet form is difficult for DIY I suspect.

Probably less hazardous than grit blasting in a ventilated area.

[Edited on 18/9/12 by coyoteboy]

I Think I may be on a hiding to nothing here - his first question was "how many engines?" and the minimum fee is £1500. Right now they're not doing a lot with the market being quiet. There is always the option to stick it on the end of someone else's job, but no guarantee of when that will be.

I will look at soda blasting instead - it's just to get a nice finish on my duratec block before it goes back into the car.

quote:

---

Originally posted by FuryRebuild
I Think I may be on a hiding to nothing here - his first question was "how many engines?"

---

if you google the address its a home address that does not look like it could store a lot of engines!

ps Burly in wharfdale the home of Jake Wright Landrovers

ATB agriv8

[Edited on 18/9/12 by Agriv8]

Nice idea, but at a guess it's not just the bast media that you need to clean up it will also be the bits removed during the blasting.. Still nice method if you had access to it..

quote:

---

Originally posted by FuryRebuild
I will look at soda blasting instead - it's just to get a nice finish on my duratec block before it goes back into the car.

---

I have a compressor already, and an air gun or two, and even a sand blasting cabinet (with sand that has got wet and gone manky so isn't any use). What's more, grit blasting is wrong for an engine.

25kg of soda powder is about £40 from ebay. I could covert the cabinet for the smaller parts, and just put a sheet up outside and blast on the patio for the larger parts.

This should do me. Crap gets pressure washed straight down the drain, and I have a shiny clean aluminium engine.

The powder is dry, so I could even clean up my alternator before air-blasting it. This May muller the bearings unless I blocket off points of ingress first.

Mark

I had a go at Soda Blasting using a grit blast gun I already had and soda I found on the net. Worked reasonably well on an alloy inlet casting but was slow going and didn't feed well into the gun. You really need a coarse grained soda rather then the finer stuff for cooking etc. that is commonly available. Haven't found a local source for it yet, which you need as it is heavy and not cheap to have posted. I think the idea is that the crystals burst on impact taking dirt away in the process.
Oh, and the soda is not as soluable as you might think, it took a lot of hosing to get it washed off my drive