Blasting Away the Years

The real mess, however, was inside. Between the car’s oil vapor recirculaton system and a suspected rich air/fuel mixture, the inside of the manifold was covered with a thin layer of black goo.

Before we could start bolting pieces back onto our 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera’s engine, we needed to do some cleaning. First up, the cast-aluminum intake manifold. The 3.2-liter Carrera uses a two-piece intake manifold, and ours was looking a bit dingy.

The real mess, however, was inside. Between the car’s oil vapor recirculation system and a suspected rich air/fuel mixture, the inside of the manifold was covered with a thin layer of black goo.

We bead-blasted the manifolds back to like-new condition. Once they get covered with a light film of oil, they should age nicely.

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Comments
turboswede
turboswede UltimaDork
1/4/12 12:25 p.m.

I need to get a bead blaster. So many aluminum items I'd like to clean up without the scouring of sand.

Soda blasting seems to work well for very light work though and the HF tool lets me play with it without investing a ton of money.

Looking good!

David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
1/4/12 5:18 p.m.

Thanks. The manifolds made a few trips through the cabinet as the intake runners were pretty gross. Our big paranoia was any remaining grit, so the rinsing process was very, very, very thorough.

jstein77
jstein77 SuperDork
1/17/12 9:55 a.m.

You should polish the Porsche logos!

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