TOPIC:

Old Man Rock wrote: Holly shit... You trying to accomplish this with the engine still in the frame...

Since you're obviously not worried about the engraving (sand blasting)....

The medium "Nylon" drill wheel is all I used with simple green on both engine builds, frame factory paint stripping, rims etc.... Try it out for ~ $10 (ACE hardware, Lowes, Home Depot, Harbor Freight Tools ( <$10) ) versus a couple hundred dollar compressor, medium, messy clean up etc....


These even took off the hard as hell OEM rim paint.

Thanks OMR, the nylon brush work is to come; right now the nooks and crannies are having me lean towards blasting, but the 3-stage nylon brush work is on the to-do list.

Here's my current game plan -- we call this the "In for a penny, in for a Pound" all-in, full combat, kill-or-be-killed blast the sucker tactics:

STEP 1) new compressor -- this comes from rivlac, thanks for that advice rivlac I'm gonna buy this one at Home Depot -- this weapon puts out 11.5 cubic feet per minute of flow at 90psi, that'll pin some ears back I'm thinking:



Gonna cost me $459 for the compressor, and probably another $100 to $200 to have an electrician add a 15amp, 220volt outlet in my workspace, this compressor does not run on 120vac 2-prong outlets.


STEP 2) blast the sucker with confidence -- this time the bunny suit, long johns, blast hood and whatnot will come in handy I'm thinking

I just wanted to mention the required 'CFM' (cubic feet per minute) that the Harbor Freight blaster tools I have bought are needing to run right.


IN THE MANUAL, THIS LOW-COST SODA BLASTER FROM HARBOR FREIGHT ($99) NEEDS 7cfm FROM THE COMPRESSOR


AND THIS AFFORDABLE MEDIA BLASTER (only $99 ) REQUIRES A MINIMUM OF 6cfm AND ACCEPTS UP TO 25cfm FROM THE COMPRESSOR



I bought both of these, the soda blaster and the media blaster, without knowing anything about this 'CFM' flow requirement that these blasters needed -- and in looking at compressors, you have to spend some outsized bucks to get a compressor with enough CFM even just to power the small, 15-gallon soda blaster.

Reason I posted this is, the 'fine print' of these seemingly low-cost blasters is you need a not-cheap compressor to run them, just wanted to help someone out before you make the mistake I did, which was to over-estimate what my current compressor was capable of.

DIY soda blaster --

www.kzrider.com/forum/21-tools/318083-budget-soda-blaster

kawpen.edebris.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2049

www.aircooledtech.com/tools-on-the-cheap/soda_blaster/

www.garagenight.tv/diy-soda-blasting-build-your-own-rig-cheap/

www.kzrider.com/forum/advsearch?q=soda+blast+engine

Good Fortune!

Old Man Rock wrote: Holly shit... You trying to accomplish this with the engine still in the frame...

+ 1 on that comment.

You haven't hurt yourself buying the tools... you will use them. BUT wouldn't be easier to do a good job if take the thing apart first? You are going to have to take it apart anyway. Don't even consider running it before you do!!! I don't understand why not now???

Yeah, motor out is much easier. You can probably build an enclosure to recapture most of your media too. Not sure I would try blasting the complete motor, pretty hard to seal up everything. But it's your project. I glass beaded all the unboltable bits, and sanded/scraped/scotchbrited the rest of the engine.

I wonder if you could just use that media blaster with soda? HF says no, have to buy the soda blaster for soda, but it seems like the same setup.

You won't be sorry with a 220v compressor. I bought my 5hp at a yard sale 15 years ago for $50 because the guy said it wouldn't build pressure. Turns out he was trying to run it on 110v. It keeps up with all my air tools just fine, where my old 110v 3hp made for frequent breaks to rebuild pressure. Especially with any vane tool like a DA or big die grinder. The bigger tanks are good, but if the compressor isn't big enough it just prolongs the inevitable break you'll need to take.

I'm about to acquire a new weapon here, I've been clearing space in my workshop for a bigole compressor, I'm gonna get a 60-gallon, 240vac, 3.5hp, 11.5cfm-at-90psi bigole bigole. Blas-tastic.

It turns out that both my soda blaster and my media blaster need at least 6cfm, and that's the bare minimum.

This new compressor I'm considering will put out 11.5cfm -- before I buy it, it would be great to hear that 11.5cfm will be enough.

The most important thing here is -- this is *not* the typical soda- or media blast job you would do to clean up a motor that's *only* suffering from oxidation. My motor has a worse problem than simple oxidation.

What I'm dealing with is the remnants of the chroming process -- the parts I'm blasting had been chromed. The whitish deposits on my engine covers are *not ordinary oxidation* -- that's very important in my question "IS 11.5 CFM ENOUGH?"

Because if 11.5cfm would NOT suffice to cut through the extreme hardened white deposits you see on my valve cover, etc. in the photo below, I DO NOT want to waste $500+ on a new compressor. My media blaster handles up to 20cfm, but I am *not* going to buy a $1000+ compressor to get that 20cfm.


HERE'S THE VERY HARD WHITE DEPOSITS LEFT FROM THE CHROMING PROCESS -- a regular 'clear off the oxidation' media blast *probably* will not cut it



So in effect I'm asking "Will the compressor below at 11.5cfm only get me a 'normal oxidation removal' level of power? Even though my media blaster takes up to 20cfm, a compressor with 20cfm of output is WAY more than $500.


11.5CFM at 90psi, 3.5hp COMPRESSOR

Are you saying it will operate with pressure up to 20 cfm or requires 20 cfm to operate?

nivlac wrote: Are you saying it will operate with pressure up to 20 cfm or requires 20 cfm to operate?

It's my media blaster -- and I was off a bit -- it has an operating range of 6cfm to 25cfm -- here's the picture:


and the link: www.harborfreight.com/20-lb-pressurized-...e-blaster-68994.html


So I'm thinking, if this media blaster handles up to 25cfm -- and I buy and use an 11.5cfm compresser to power it -- I will be missing out on over

(25cfm - 11.5cfm)

---

= 54% of the available throughput flow power of my media blaster
25cfm


I will be leaving a lot on the table in terms of what my 25cfm media blaster can flow if I'm only powering it with an 11.5cfm compressor.

DANG IT. Why are 20cfm compressors so expensive. (greedy chinese?)

HOWEVER, I'm still wondering if 11.5cfm of flow power is enough for my abrasive blaster to blast away the 'chrome process crud' on my engine.

Maybe it's gonna be easier to just install a used but nice and never-been-chromed set of engine covers:

- valve cover (which is really the worst of them all in terms of the crusty white post-chrome stuff)
- clutch cover
- points cover
- alternator cover
- countershaft cover


I still need a more powerful compressor for the other stuff around my small shop, so I may just buy the $500 11.5cfm compressor and see if it works on my white-encrusted engine covers and if not, so be it I'll just get a nice used set of the above engine covers and polish them up a bit.

I've actually already got a points cover and clutch cover. The other covers will set me back less than $200 if the 11.5cfm compressor doesn't provide enough power to handle my troubled bits.

I've been trying to understand why there is so much deep corrosion and I have an idea...the chrome may well not have been done properly or it just happened anyway but I am thinking that over time the salt contaminated air got between the chrome and the original ally and has just had a field day eating the ally up. I have dealt with marine corrosion in rowing shells between ss bolts and aluminium riggers and I have seen the same happen to the ally parts....the corrosion is pretty deep and terminal. So I am thinking that even if you get that horrible white crud off you will not like what you are left with as you won't have too much good material left. In a way the white crud can be described as aluminium rust and when you blast the rust away.....?

Your choice whether to spend the bucks on the (very useful) compressor but my feeling is that it will only help with everything else but what you originally planned to do.

My 2 cents

Your idea about replacing the covers is spot on. Cheaper, easier and a guaranteed fix.

go for used unchromed covers . chrome plated aluminum that's peeling is a bitch to remove and the covers are probably pitted very bad. replacing these covers has to be a lot cheaper and a lot less aggravating in the long run......my.02