Are these painted silver at the factory, or just plain aluminum? Got a quick look late night after pulling runners/plenum was having difficult distinguishing whether it was silver paint or plain aluminum.

 

Bare cast aluminum

 

Thanks! I'm considering popping it off and cleaning out the inside, from the looks of the insides of my runners it could use it. What are people using these days to clean? I read the old carb cleaners have been reformulated and don't work all that great anymore. (Didn't want to destroy silver paint in the process, good to know its bare cast)

 

Having just gone through this myself, I took mine to the machine shop, had them hot tanked, then bead blasted. They look new.
On my own, and after a couple hours, they were not getting clean enough. Worth the money to get done right.

 

My experiences:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tpi/...-cleaning.html




Hot tank and bead blasted. Thanks for the tip!

 

Thanks! Outside is fine. I'm interested in getting the inside clean, is it difficult cleaning the inside?

 

Use a bottle brush with a flexible handle, and your favorite grease cutter. Either that, if you are feeling really rude, oven cleaner. If you go that route though, WEAR GLOVES.

 

Dish washer. "Pots and Pans". Just hide Helga's fry'n pan first, lest ye be wantin a concussion.

 

Seriously though, don't waste your time. The inside is naturally a chocolate brown color, the PCV system and EGR system circulate oil vapor and exhaust into the plenum. You can clean the inside spotless, and it'll start browning up again in short order. It's normal.

 

Interesting, thanks for the tip.