What walnut blaster did you use to clean your intake valves?

[arjun90]

What walnut blaster did you use to clean your intake valves?

[MTL4]

Have a look in my thread here, I went through what to use and how to do it (definitely worth doing, same with cleaning/testing your injectors).

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...enance-on-3-0T

[arjun90]

Thanks, I picked up a 25 lbs walnut blaster (Harbor freight) but I have a tiny 10 gallon 2.5HP 125psi compressor. Would this hold up, or should I go for a cheaper one like the one you referenced?

Have a look in my thread here, I went through what to use and how to do it (definitely worth doing, same with cleaning/testing your injectors).

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...enance-on-3-0T

[MTL4]

Thanks, I picked up a 25 lbs walnut blaster (Harbor freight) but I have a tiny 10 gallon 2.5HP 125psi compressor. Would this hold up, or should I go for a cheaper one like the one you referenced?

Should be fine if you keep the pressure maxed (regulator full open) but you may need to let it rest alot more often to build pressure again since the tank is so small. Also be sure to empty your tank's water drain often, walnut media doesn't blast well when damp.

This is the equivalent of what I was using:
https://www.harborfreight.com/portab...kit-37025.html

[arjun90]

Thanks, I still think I should have opted for the smaller one. With the one you used, did you have to let it rest a lot more often as well? How effective was the cleaning for the first several minutes?

Should be fine if you keep the pressure maxed (regulator full open) but you may need to let it rest alot more often to build pressure again since the tank is so small. Also be sure to empty your tank's water drain often, walnut media doesn't blast well when damp.

This is the equivalent of what I was using:
https://www.harborfreight.com/portab...kit-37025.html

[MTL4]

Thanks, I still think I should have opted for the smaller one. With the one you used, did you have to let it rest a lot more often as well? How effective was the cleaning for the first several minutes?

I have a pretty good sized compressor (5hp, 30 gallon) and I didn’t need to let it rest much at all. Cleaning worked great but you’ll need to stop often to use picks to help scrape off the thick deposits. It takes forever to blast them off otherwise if you don’t (process is pretty gentle). It’s also a pain because when you reuse the walnut media over and over the larger deposits often clog the media siphon so you need to stop and clean it out before proceeding. Keep an air gun attachment handy to help clear any obstructions and blow out the cylinders so you can check your work. It’s a messy job even if you’re careful so don’t be shy with the tape to mask off everywhere you don’t want walnut pieces getting into.

[arjun90]

Thanks, do you think I might be better off returning the 25lb walnut blaster and getting the significantly cheaper plastic 50lb sand blaster? I would use the blaster again for other projects though

I have a pretty good sized compressor (5hp, 30 gallon) and I didn’t need to let it rest much at all. Cleaning worked great but you’ll need to stop often to use picks to help scrape off the thick deposits. It takes forever to blast them off otherwise if you don’t (process is pretty gentle). It’s also a pain because when you reuse the walnut media over and over the larger deposits often clog the media siphon so you need to stop and clean it out before proceeding. Keep an air gun attachment handy to help clear any obstructions and blow out the cylinders so you can check your work. It’s a messy job even if you’re careful so don’t be shy with the tape to mask off everywhere you don’t want walnut pieces getting into.

[jbain2]

I did mine with a 5 gallon compressor tank. No issues. I used a blaster from FCP. I also used picks and a wire brush as well. I pre-soaked with a fuel injector treatment as well. Here’s mine pre and post. Image1658796242.898979.jpgImage1658796272.550471.jpg


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[arjun90]

How long did it take for you to do that with a 5 gallon air compressor? I'm assuming you went with the 25lb blaster, right?

I did mine with a 5 gallon tank. No issues. I used a blaster from FCP. I also used picks and a wire brush as well. I pre-soaked with a fuel injector treatment as well. Here’s mine pre and post. Image1658796242.898979.jpgImage1658796272.550471.jpg


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[jbain2]

Do you have the cylinder adapter to insert the wand into? I also used a wand with a slight angle to it so that as I rotated it, the spray pattern was able to get to all areas.


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[arjun90]

I picked up one from 034 along with a slightly bent wand

Do you have the cylinder adapter to insert the wand into? I also used a wand with a slight angle to it so that as I rotated it, the spray pattern was able to get to all areas.


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[RPMtech147]

I've used a walnut blaster for the 10 past years and have adapters for Awdee and BMW but still always a mess. I charged 1 hour per Cyl. I had to empty the shop-vac at least 3 time per cylinder, then try and reuse the media, which causes issues because the gummy carbon chunks mixed in the with two boxes of media would clog the machine, then you have to take apart the machine, clean hoses, get more media literally everywhere. It was just a hassle.

When it broke, just to get a job done I grabbed a heavy chemical carbon cleaner (X66, an old GM top end cleaner, but I've used brake clean, carb clean, BG's fuel system cleaner, etc, anything that will break down the carbon) filled the port with it, then hit the port and valves with brass and soft brushes on the end of a drill. Big chunks I just scrapped off with a long plastic scraper, then stuff a shop towel and a blow gun into the port after cleaning and good to go. I saved hours. Wasn't "bright" like a walnut blast but equally as clean; after the first tank of gas, it's gummed up again regardless.

100% corrected cold-start misfires.


No more emptying of the the shop vac, no more walnut mess, no more masking the car for 30 minutes and still having that wood burning smell when done. I don't know if I'll ever bother fixing the walnut machine.

What I will tell you...for shits and gigs, our dry Ice blaster was at the shop one day cleaning a frame. I asked him if he could hit 1 port, just to see what it would look like. it took him about 30 seconds to clean one port on a 2.0T.

[MTL4]

I totally agree chemical method would be faster (GM top end cleaner is the best, used it all the time myself as a mechanic) but the walnut media does a much better job getting things clean. It makes sense why a shop would switch to this instead because obviously time is money. I’d still use the walnut media at home if you’re not in a huge hurry to get it done.

[sswari]

I did get cylinder one done yesterday between all the running around. Before, step 1 finished. About an hour total time. A little concerned about the scratches hopefully not a big deal. Started with a light scraping and vacuum, then a soak in some Berryman b12 carb cleaner with some brushing, last a good old wallnut blasting. Hopefully get a few more done today.

[arjun90]

That looks squeaky clean. But one hour for just one cylinder? Which blaster did you use? Seems like this is definitely going to ask for lots of patience. Thanks for the heads up

I did get cylinder one done yesterday between all the running around. Before, step 1 finished. About an hour total time. A little concerned about the scratches hopefully not a big deal. Started with a light scraping and vacuum, then a soak in some Berryman b12 carb cleaner with some brushing, last a good old wallnut blasting. Hopefully get a few more done today.

[sswari]

That looks squeaky clean. But one hour for just one cylinder? Which blaster did you use? Seems like this is definitely going to ask for lots of patience. Thanks for the heads up

Hey there Arjun90, So that one hour was again a first shot. That included some soaking time, which if you have more than one closed cylinder you could scrape them all, vacuum them out and let them soak for 20 minutes then brush dry them out and then blast them. The majority of the hour was figuring out that one of these will make life significantly better. I was trying to use a microfiber towel to block the walnut from going everywhere, really does not work.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...t_b_prod_image
Also, I am not in a huge hurry, the gaskets will not be here till Monday or Tuesday, plus I will be cracking open the Manifold to check the runner flap stuff.

[arjun90]

Thanks for the motivation. How big is your air compressor?

Hey there Arjun90, So that one hour was again a first shot. That included some soaking time, which if you have more than one closed cylinder you could scrape them all, vacuum them out and let them soak for 20 minutes then brush dry them out and then blast them. The majority of the hour was figuring out that one of these will make life significantly better. I was trying to use a microfiber towel to block the walnut from going everywhere, really does not work.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...t_b_prod_image
Also, I am not in a huge hurry, the gaskets will not be here till Monday or Tuesday, plus I will be cracking open the Manifold to check the runner flap stuff.

[sswari]

Also, I ended up ordering one of these

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HH9ZFHV...roduct_details

As the extension looks like a really good idea, rather then building one. Just my .02

One more thing. Be very careful you do not shut your PCV connector hose in the hood if you need to close your hood for some reason, that MF will cost you big time.

[jbain2]

You really need to use an adapter and a wand to do this job cleanly. 034 sells one. You connect a shop vac to the adapter and put a wand through a small hole in the adapter and turn the walnut blaster on. I had no issues doing mine with a 5 gallon compressor.


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[arjun90]

Thanks, that sounds pretty rest-assuring. I got the 034 adapter, looking forward to doing this towards the end of the year. I'll be stoked if I find the valves to be cleaner than originally conceived, haha

You really need to use an adapter and a wand to do this job cleanly. 034 sells one. You connect a shop vac to the adapter and put a wand through a small hole in the adapter and turn the walnut blaster on. I had no issues doing mine with a 5 gallon compressor.


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[sswari]

Thanks for the motivation. How big is your air compressor?

So I am doing this a bit different than most. I am doing 2 steps, to save media, but not sure it is a time saver.
Step1 is scrape the big shit off and vacuum out that, then soak it in Berryman B12 Carb cleaner for a while, brush it out as best as you can, then soak that crap up with paper towels. The scrape and vacuum a bit more. The last step will be the blasting. As I moved through the last few cylinders, I took less time in the first 2 steps.

Just a small sample of some of the crap I scraped and vacuumed out of the first set of valves and the paper towel bits used to clean out the Carb Cleaner.

20220812_132549.jpg 20220812_132722.jpg

Also, my compressor is 25 Gal 5HP and 11.9 CFM

[arjun90]

Oh wow, what compressor is that? I think mine only does 4.5 CFM at 90 PSI and is capable of 125psi max

So I am doing this a bit different than most. I am doing 2 steps, to save media, but not sure it is a time saver.
Step1 is scrape the big shit off and vacuum out that, then soak it in Berryman B12 Carb cleaner for a while, brush it out as best as you can, then soak that crap up with paper towels. The scrape and vacuum a bit more. The last step will be the blasting. As I moved through the last few cylinders, I took less time in the first 2 steps.

Just a small sample of some of the crap I scraped and vacuumed out of the first set of valves and the paper towel bits used to clean out the Carb Cleaner.

20220812_132549.jpg 20220812_132722.jpg

Also, my compressor is 25 Gal 5HP and 11.9 CFM

[sswari]

It's an older Craftsman roll around. Got a swinnging deal on it on Craig's List, they listed $100 under what they intended to.

[arjun90]

Well...there's nothing better than using the right tool for the right job

It's an older Craftsman roll around. Got a swinnging deal on it on Craig's List, they listed $100 under what they intended to.

[MTL4]

You really need to use an adapter and a wand to do this job cleanly. 034 sells one. You connect a shop vac to the adapter and put a wand through a small hole in the adapter and turn the walnut blaster on. I had no issues doing mine with a 5 gallon compressor.

You don’t need to spend alot of money on the setup, just a piece of brake line with a barb fitting made an awesome wand when I did mine.



https://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/952629-Major-maintenance-on-3-0T

[sswari]

You don’t need to spend alot of money on the setup, just a piece of brake line with a barb fitting made an awesome wand when I did mine.



https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...enance-on-3-0T

Actually, did a little testing today, and the wand is a pain in the ass and makes a huge mess. If you have at least 100PSI and a good strong shop vac, The snub nose directed blasting tip that comes with the hobofriegth media blaster does just fine.

[MTL4]

Actually, did a little testing today, and the wand is a pain in the ass and makes a huge mess. If you have at least 100PSI and a good strong shop vac, The snub nose directed blasting tip that comes with the hobofriegth media blaster does just fine.

Walnut blasting is messy in general (no way to make it clean) but not a big deal IMHO if you tape everything off right. I didn’t use any chemical cleaners at all (just the occasional pick for the stubborn thicker deposits) when I did it. So I’m not sure how well it would have worked to clean the back of the valves with just the original tip from the sandblaster without the use of chemical cleaners.

[sswari]

Walnut blasting is messy in general (no way to make it clean) but not a big deal IMHO if you tape everything off right. I didn’t use any chemical cleaners at all (just the occasional pick for the stubborn thicker deposits) when I did it. So I’m not sure how well it would have worked to clean the back of the valves with just the original tip from the sandblaster without the use of chemical cleaners.

Agreed 100%, but was not aware of how messy.
As for the cleaning process, one huge advantage I can see on the chemical cleaning is that it is much easier to reuse the media. Since there was no gooey nasty crap in media, I was able to just dump it back into the blaster. I had read about having to run the media through a strainer to get it somewhat cleaned out, I am sure this saved more time than it cost. On the fist 3 cylinders, I spent way too much time on this part. What I will be doing with the the A8L is 1) knock loose anything I can and vacuum out the chunks, this is what you see in the picture next to the knife, took about 10 minutes each valve. Then the Chemtool soak and a good brushing while working on the next set of valves. Be sure to brush the bottom of the valve guide area, lots of crap up there. On the first 3 or 4 sets of valves, I did the soak and scrape probably 3 times before blasting. on the last 4 I progressively did less soaking. See pictures. Then the blasting. After messing around with the wand and trying to not get shells everywhere, I went back to just the basics with the adapter, short nozzle and vacuum on the last 4 sets. I feel the results were actually just as good with a single soak and solid technique on the blasting with out the extension. Again, I do have a bit more compressor, and the shop vac is a beast as well. One thought is that what is important is to keep the inside of the valve area free from media. What I noticed when trying to use an extension was that there was a significant amount of media left in the space when I went to check progress. I am sure this was hindering the cleaning ability of the blasting. After I went back to just the nozzle, I could blast for over a minute and have a minimum of media left in the space. I just do not see how being an inch closer to the surface will much if any difference if the media has the ability to do its job. Again, I was running up close to if not at 125PSI. Another added advantage was MUCH less media escaping the work area. Just my .02 on this project. Won't get much done today sadly. Tomorrow should be putting the cleaned up and repaired manifold back in.
The first 2 are the valves from #10 just a bit of picking and 1 soak, the other are #8 with 3 soakings, 9 was in between with 2 soaks.

ET16_20220811152314sm.jpg ET16_20220811152305sm.jpg ET16_20220811155206sm.jpg ET16_20220811155147sm.jpg

After equal amounts of blasting and minor picking they all came out very nice. Be careful with the picking. you want to do more of a rub then picking/scratching.

[sswari]

Not sure If I made this clear or not, but I agree with MTL4 on this.

I would not spend the money I did not the setup I got from Amazon, and I DO NOT recommend anybody else buy it.

If you are going to try an extension, do it this way!!!

You don’t need to spend alot of money on the setup, just a piece of brake line with a barb fitting made an awesome wand when I did mine.



https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...enance-on-3-0T

[MTL4]

Not sure If I made this clear or not, but I agree with MTL4 on this.

I would not spend the money I did not the setup I got from Amazon, and I DO NOT recommend anybody else buy it.

If you are going to try an extension, do it this way!!!

I don’t really think there’s a right or wrong way to do this job but it’s great to share helpful techniques. I’m pretty sure most shops are now using the chemical method only and skipping the walnut blasting completely since it is slower and messier (for a shop time is money so it makes sense why they prefer whatever’s fastest). That said walnut blasting and picks does definitely do a better job (final product looks fantastic while there will be a bit of residue left when just using chemicals). I did run into a bit but of an issue with thick crap getting stuck in the blaster occasionally (I just dumped the walnut media into the blaster over and over, no sifting). For the most part it was a non starter but one time it baffled me when I had no media and piece of carbon got lodged way up in the gun. Not a big deal, just keep an air gun handy and blow the lines out into a trash can and keep going. I alway ran my compressor wide open 120-150 psi since there wasn’t any danger of damaging anything and you get the most mileage out of each refill on the walnut media.

Here’s my before and after using picks and the wand:

[jbain2]

I really had zero issues with making a mess using the wand and vacuum method. I did presoak in a solvent first as well, then used wire brushes and a pick to get the stubborn stuff off. I went through just about 25 pounds of media.


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[sswari]

So I got it all the motor parts put back together this evening.
Still have to the front end back together, Oh yea and replace the upper radiator hose, Yea, I broke the over flow return hose nipple off.

Anyway, I thought I saw somebody say that they did an S6 V10 without moving the carrier out, I have no Idea how they did it. If you have to turn the crank, and there is a really good chance you will, you will need one of these also
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XRV1DNL...roduct_details

If there is a way to turn the crank on the S6, it would be great to know, as I am going to have to do the A8 in the next few months and really do not want to take it that far apart.

All in all, this is a pain in the (|) type job haha