media blasting my engine

Hey all, I am going to bead blast my engine this weekend and wanted some advice. I have completely disassembled the engine down to bare cases. I want to know how to go about keeping media out of areas i don't wnat it in. I was thinking I would put the cases back together with the oil pan and then tape up the ignition, stator, clutch and jug holes. sound like a good plan? Let me know what you guys think I'm sure someone on here has done this.

Have u ever heard of soda blasting,alot easier to clean out the finished product only needs water to clean.I have a article about the soda blasting see if I can post it.

ndfez wrote:

Have u ever heard of soda blasting,alot easier to clean out the finished product only needs water to clean.I have a article about the soda blasting see if I can post it.

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

Just stripped my motor and had it soda blasted recently and it came up awsome,like you said washes out with water so no need to stress about leaving medium in your oil galleries.

Yeah i have a soda blaster but it doesn't work that well. takes forever to take paint off.

noone has done this or has any tips? other than soda blasting.

I've never done it either but it's on my list for the winter my new place has a garage so I'll actually be able to work on my bike and car. I've lived on campus for 6 years and haven't had a garage or even a flat piece of pavement to work on in years. I have a 110lb media blaster from harbor freight. i was trying to decide if i was going to use glass beads or buy the retrofit kit from Eastwood to convert it to soda. It runs $120, but may be worth it since I'm planing on striping the whole bike.

Media blasting will be fine and give you a real good finish, everyone complains that you get residue in the oil if you dont clean it good enough. just clean it good then! We have a place in Milwaukee called U-Spray where you do your own blasting and pay by the minute. Glass bead gave me what i thought was the best finish the other media just did not look right. You may want to thread all the bolts you can into there holes. you will want to tap them out before reassembly anyways but if they are plugged with media and the thread have been rounded over from the blasting it can become tiresome.

diy soda blasting tool

Click Here

Good Luck!

thanks for the help. I picked up the blast cabinet and the glass bead yesterday and started with my clutch cover it came out pretty good. I did find the cabinet that I bought is too small to fit my engine in assembled. I will have to have the top and bottom seperate. I plan on taping up the bearing surfaces and just being careful as to where I point the gun. Although the glass bead seems to be pretty gentle. I will post pics of the finished product in my build thread.

Polish the covers when you are done and they will shine like chrome. I have seen a big plastic tub rigged as a cabinet that would fit all your parts in. might be something to think about for the big stuff. Clean,clean,clean is the only way to get all the media out. I used to take my smallblock Chevy blocks to the carwash to clean them when I was done blasting.

The company where I worked at some years ago rebuilt the refueling nozzles for Diesel Locomotives, The nozzles were disassembled,blasted with glass beads,washed in soap and water, and dried before re-assembling.

A surprising amount of glass bead grit was at the bottom of the washing tub when it was changed weekly.