Alright, I got a cheap selection of dremel bits, some time, and extra intake, so I thought I would give it a try. I'm more worried about polishing before the injector area, then after it.

Construtive critisism welcome.

Few questions I have.

1. How do you get to the dead center of the valleys?
2. What bits do you use the most of?
3. No way to do upper 1/3 is their?
4. Dremel wont fit in middle section, how to do that?
5. Anyone ever filled in the "pockets" where no antifreeze flows, just sits?

And who was it here that did the chemical cleaning thing in the tub? This intake has oil and carbon buildup over a 1/8 thick!

 

There's pockets for antifreeze to collect? Or are these holes that just don't go anywhere? I don't see how you'd fill them in, unless you started welding some aluminum into them...

 

That was me on the electrolysis... works nice, if you've got a couple batteries or chargers laying around.

Otherwise, since you have a dremel - a wire brush + carb cleaner works REALLY well!

 

dow, hook me up on that process. Carb cleaner, castrol super clean isnt cutting it. I got 3 chargers, and 1 spare battery (doubtfully good).

what bits did you use the most on your heads?

tomp, pockets are just to collect, um, NOTHING. No passage way.

does it look like I did the work right?

 

Hey Doward, I'm with Dale on the electrolysis thing. What chemical bath do you use? I assume you connect the dirty piece to the positive??? My curiosity has been sparked....

 

Wire brush & fast orange also work good, & smells just as good
ANd get that flex shaft attachment for the dremel.

 

Brake cleaner works good to clean just about anything, and is super handy for tracking oil leaks in hard to clean areas.... As far as the "porting" goes, I read in Engine rebuilder that it's better to have a rough intake side to promote "swirling". They say that if the intake is as smooth as glass, you get a poor fuel burn, so keep it rough. Enlarging the runners however, they say that it stimulates upper rpm horsepower (while losing some lower Rpm torque). There are some interesting things you can do with intakes it turns out. Not so much in power gains as manipulating when and where the torque is at. Longer skinny runners=low rpm torque (if I remember correctly). I'll get the article from work tommorow and hook you up with the need to know stuff. It's pretty interesting reading...

 

the only thing that was in those pockets inside my manifold was the stop leak stuff i put in like 2 months ago.Stuff supposedly stops leaks 99% of the time its added, so the bottle says I used carb cleaner, but it wasnt really caked on, Mine was more of the milkshake than anything.

 

Here, let me help

http://www.autospeed.co.nz/cms/article.html?&A=0122&P=2

Good article. By what I read, its a toss up. Read the article completely before you post anything else in response.

Porting helps by allowing more air to flow. But if you port too much, you loose velocity which decreases the ability to cram air into the chamber. Atomization is an important factor as well. If you put the injectors further up the intake, you get better atomization, but then you loose throttle-ability.

Engines are very tunable things. Its all give and take.

 

Pretty good. Now i don't have to type up the one from the magazine.

 

On a port fulie, you'd want the surface as smooth as possible, decreses drag on air comming in. Atomization should be taken care of by the spray pattern of the injector & air coming in.

 

Thatsiteis ok, until you start to read the other articles and get hit up for $30 a month to read them.

 

The site has lots of good stuff for free but if you look around the web, you can find it else where for free. I don't like ploys like that. Lead you in with common good free material to try and sell a sub to the site. **** sites do that.

 

Wow, thanks for all the responses.

FWI, no wire brush or cleaner is going to take care of the gunk build up. I brushed for a few hours on the spots I could touch.

I searched the electro thingie, found the orginal post, and link in it. I'm going to call an engine rebuild place first, see their price on it.

Is the flex shaft really smaller at the head to fit in spots easier? It looked about the same.

So hows my work look in the pictures? Good, bad, ok?

 

hey i forgot, when i was trying to polish my plenum(the whole 5 minutes that lasted) i sanded it down with one of those barrel sanders for the dremel then i used one of those gray diamond carbide grinding rock thingys for the dremel, the area i used it on looked like chrome.

 

1. Go get a Dremel flex shaft. They are REALLY small, about as small in diameter as one of those highlighters you would use at work or school, maybe even smaller.
2. Go get a Black and Decker rotary polishing kit... It includes the wire brush, seven grinding stones, many felt polishing tips, and a small container of polish, should you need it. The wire wheel works wonders on just about anything, including very old, impossible to remove road grime from the back of my AR alloy wheels.
3. Better yet, go out to a local Mr. 2nd's and get one of their rotary tool kits. It comes with anything you could need (spare motor in case yours burns up from all the work it is doing, polishing stones, etc) except the wire wheel, including the flex shaft. Why they did not include a wire wheel with all of those polishing stones is beyond me...

 

just find someone with a glass beading machine, they work wonders but make sure you get all the glass beads out it could ruin your motor

 

Alrighty, spent a few hours on it last night.

Lower 1/3 is basically done! I'm going to get some soft grit stones for before the injector area. Then get some real corse ones for after the injector area (not much of it).

I've got a nice stack of aluminum powder on my work bench

Also found a motor rebuild shop that would dip tank clean my parts for 10 bux :rockon:


Iroc, were you refuring to glass beads to clean? If so, that would get the outside, but not the inside.


Maverick, thanks for info on dremel shaft, it just doesnt look all that small.

 

Been using it on my wheels. I got a third of one done, but I can't do any more because the wire wheel is toast and I have to have the wheel to move the car...

 

Hey Mav, your using it on your wheels???? How is that turning out? I've been wanting to polish my wheels but a guy told me it would take to long and not look how I wanted. So what says ya???

 

Can't tell you yet. I only have gotten about a third of the way done with the front right one (some of the back, the rim and one of the spokes on the front) and have not been back at it in a while... I have the wheel on the car and have not touched it in a week and a half, and my wire wheel died so I have to get another one.

 

Alright. Found something out tonight. the OLD dremel flex shaft, the end is very small. The NEW flex shaft, the head is almost as big as the dremel itself. I found an old one today, a return, box never opened :lala:

 

When I glass beaded cleaned my top intake, I put duct tape over the openings for extra protection.
Then I cleaned out inside with brake cleaner, long skinny screwdriver. Just chipping away at the carbon buildup. Then went back for a final glass bead again using tape on openings for protection.
When I cleaned & polished the aluminum Corvette valve covers, I used a large buffer wheel, & compound & lots of movement, never resting in just one spot for very long. Prior to polishing, I glass beaded the valve covers, which quickly took care of surface prep. I also liked the final finish that was created.

 

I don't know what he's talk'n about either, but our plenums are definately not aluminum. I'm not sure what they are, but at a guess, I'd say some type of galvanized cast metal. I checked with a magnet, they're definately not aluminum, and the seams indicate casting to me. If they're cast, they're going to be a pain in the *** to weld, you have to preheat the metal first to weld cast.

Mathius

 

there is like four pockets that collect coolant but go no place. Mine were filled with stop leak i put in like 2 months ago. the pockets are at the top and bottom in the sides of the manifold. MAybe they collect coolant to transfer the heat for some reason?

 

We ported Redraif's intake using a dremel with a flex shaft...its probably one of the older ones, we bought it more than a year ago. We weren't able to do much with the top piece, other than match it to the gaskets and open up around the throttle body opening some (will have to remove more when the new throttle body comes in). The runners may not be the same alloy as the upper, but they are as soft as aluminum so I would guess they are just a different alloy. The edges will polish and hold a shine like aluminum, at least.
Lots of material was removed from the runners, with no real loss in torque on the 3.4...it acutally made 211 lb/ft at the wheels last time.

 

Thanks LT. I just played with this shaft, and looks like I will beable to get all the middle section with it.

I just got it back from the cleaners, and am not happy. Looks like I will be reading up the electo thingie system.

 

Spray in brake cleaner & keep spraying.
Take long screwdriver & then work it off.
Reclean outside at home with easy off oven cleaner.
PS at the point of no return of cleaning, I realized that the carbon actually helped, due to smoother surface & smoother passage of air.
Incoming Fuel passage surfaces need roughing up to keep fuel in airflow.
All top does is move air, true?

 

good point ked

I shall leave upper intake dirty where I cant access

Rest is fair dibs for mr dremmel

after I find out whats rattling in my suspension

 

Didn't realize you had trouble cleaning it.

Holly throttle body cleaner. It works better than anything.
Its made just to remove that kind of crap.

Better than any carb or other spray I have used.

 

And yep, the top just carries air. it can be as smooth as ya want. Though there are some rules about turns that still apply. Something like a sharp edge on the inside of a turn is better.

Anyways, you could also get fancy and grind in some groves for your own tornado effect.

 

Doward, check your PM please!