What the hell should I do?

I polished them up and left them out no clear coat,and it seems like it got dark,Like oil coming out of the pores?

Well heres the deal,I want it to stay aluminum look,I dont want to paint my intake but I think it will look like **** if the front ocover and housings are painted..what do you guys think..Got pics?

 

Bead blast everything, like this!



sorry about the size... didn't have time to shrink it down..

 

woa... that looks awesome

 

I wouldnt bead blast it then leave just liek that finish,I would polish it even throght the bead blastin would help clean it out..

DINGO check PM

 

Any one?

 

Both painting and polishing will inhibit heat transfer.

 

yea, if it were me i'd just clean them up real good and leave it at that.

 

How would polishing aluminum hold the heat?

 

You didn't bead-blast/sand blast that rotor did you? If so, you sure better hope you get every little bit of sand/crap out of the oil passages in the rotor otherwise you will get that stuff in your oil/oil pump and in some cases clog up the filter/oil strainer and cause oil starvation and eventually bearing failure. If you clean it afterwards THOURGHLY, dis-regard what I said. Also, I don't know if I would bead-blast the coolant passages or the rotor housing surface since that stuff under pressure can be imprenant into them also.

Opps, I guess if you were to just use the parts for display, it wouldn't matter at all.

 

yeuuuppp... it's on display permanantly on a desk.

 

I say polish... then coat it with good polishing chemical that won't make it rust or fade to another color...

How much is it to bead blast???

 

Rotary13B1
Email me when yoru keychains are done.
Rotary7s@tampabay.rr.com

I hope they are not to pricey

 

what is this bead blasting, is it sand blasting, that housing looks sweet I was looking for something that would make the engine lokk nice without painting

 

Reflectivity.

It's the same reason that you turn the aluminum foil so the duller side is out when you are reheating leftovers.

 

I'm not really sure what a shop with the equipment would charge, but it shouldn't be that expensive. I did the housing and rotor in about 20 mins. I got this done from a personal source on a Saturday.

Bead blasting- VERY FINE glass beads are "blasted" in an enclosed hood. Its propelled by compressed air at a high velocity. You can just see the grime/dirt/cr@p come off as you go around the housing. I wore a cheapie mask when I did it.
Sand blasting- uses fine sand instead of the glass beads.
And as stated by WackyRotary, you would have to spend some time with compressed air and other methods to get all of the residual glass beads/sand out of the nooks and crannies if you were to use the pieces for rebuild purposes. I'm not sure if you can even re-use them after this kind of treatment.

 

Here's a close up of the rotor bead blasted...

 

Sorry man, but that's pretty much urban myth/wive's tale stuff

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_172.html

Most of the heat leaving an engine through the air would be via convection aka air motion. There'd be a fair amount of cooling through conduction (the water cooling and transference to other metal parts (tranny bellhousing) but I believe the 2nd largest cooling forces after the water cooling is going to be airflow. Which as we know kinda sucks in our engine bays.

Painting should have minimal effect on the ability to transfer heat to the air and no effect on the ability to transfer heat to the water. Obviously before I state this as fact, I'm going to have to build two identical-in-every-aspect engines and run a lot of tests, but for now I'd have to say that you shouldn't worry too much about painting your engine leading to early engine failure

 

So how do ya clean parts that you do wanna reuse?

 

For the rotors, I'd use carb spray and let them soak and scrub them with tooth brush and abrasive pad to get the carbon off. You should follow up with a parts cleaner bin and dry them and put oil on them. I saw a picture above with the oil rings still on the rotor, I'd advise against that also if you choose to bead blast them and reuse since beads will undoubtably get in were it shouldn't be. And massive amount of time on blowing off the beads and soaked in a parts cleaner, and then blown dry again.

As for the rotor housings, soak them in a parts cleaner and scrub and scrub. Then wash with soap/water and then if you want it shiny, wet sand the outer surface and then use a buffer wheel and buffer compound and they will get shiney.

 

god dam thread jackers

 

hey, I didn't threadjack this puppy, my comments and others regarding painting engines were very germane to the subject.

 

From your link:
The official word from the Reynolds aluminum people is as follows: "It makes little difference which side of the Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil you use--both sides do the same fine job of cooking, freezing, and storing food. There is a slight difference in the reflectivity of the two sides, but it is so slight that laboratory instruments are required to measure it."

How does this make my statement a "wive's tale"? I never said that it would cause early engine failure, only that it affects heat transfer, which it does.

I am glad that someone took the time to check it out for themselves, though.

I'll also add that sandblasting does not use "sand", but rather abrasive grit, typically aluminum oxide or silicon carbide. Sand would be pretty much similar to glass bead blasting as both are comprised primarily of silica.
Bead blasting would be my choice to clean up the housings, the only downside is that they are then more susceptible to staining as the surface becomes somewhat more porous.

 

Fair enough, wives' tale it isn't, but if it takes lab equipment with tolerances of thousandths or millionths of degrees and can't be determined by a simple tenth of a degree...

However, what works for aluminum foil doesn't necessarily work for the housings. While I agree with the "porous" comment, I disagree that polished housings will retain heat any differently. We're talking about aluminum with a fair amount of thickness not measured in microns

I picked up some 500 degree and 1400 degree engine paint. I plan on doing a wonderful experiment on ambient temps, average core temp before and after, and of course surface temps. I'll let you know how it pans out

 

I believe that above rotor is for display only. I've got no problem with sand/bead blasting in a display enigne, but for a usable engine, I probably won't be doing that...

Carb spray eh? I dunno how much soaking they'll do in that, as it evaporates very quicky... Any other solvents that'll be good? Paint thinner? Varsol? Benzine? Naptha? Hmmm... Maybe I better get rid of some of those cans... I think some of these are illegal now...

 

Just keep it clean. you could clear coat it, but i dont think it turns out to well..


-Zach