Bead Blasting vs. Soda Blasting vs. Hot Tank for Engine Case

[luisr320]

Great! One more 83 VT750 being restored to its glory.

A couple of notes from a "I was there":

If you want to powder coat your engine case, you have to media blast it. Preferably with glass beads. But be sure to block every opening to the engine inners. If any part of the blasting medium gets in there, your engine is gone. You will not clean it well enough, ever. A friend of mine fried his Volkswagen engine like that. Glass beads will eat up a very thin layer of aluminum giving it a very clean look. But those powder beads are nasty stuff.

If you are only going to paint the engine, you should soda blast it. Soda blasting will remove all the paint and grease, leaving the engine ready for painting with high temp paint. It will not affect the engine case surface in any way. You can even eat it.

Check out how my engine ended up after soda blasting it:
86 Honda VT750C Restoration log

and here
86 Honda VT750C Restoration log

Regarding the inners of your engine, leave it alone. No good reason to squiky clean it on the inside. You can hot tank it after soda blasting the outside. That will help wash the soda medium, which is water soluble, but not really critical.

Regarding the paint, you should ask around what works best. I used Duplicolor engine enamel. It gives a very nice finish but chips easily, if you are not very careful.

Please post a lot of photos from the whole process so that we may follow it.

Good luck.

[keb709]

Originally Posted by ejsaenz

How about carbon dioxide (CO2) blasting?

I thought about that, but I'm fairly certain that dry ice pellets are unavailable in my area. Seems really cool though, I wouldn't even need a blasting cabinet!

[keb709]

Luis, I would certainly feel safer about soda blasting, but I'm not sure that I can achieve the look I want with it. I would like the engine to look like the parts mattyo sandblasted as seen in his thread: engine rebuild and more... , then I would like to clear coat it. If plastic media doesn't embed in aluminum, then maybe I'll try that and hope for the best. It's all a learning process!

[luisr320]

It will work fine, but try this: blast the engine case with all the covers and cylinders on, plugging all holes, and then remove the covers and cylinders and blast them individually, to get all the details, away from the open engine. Plastic medium will not go away like soda.

[SkullCrusher]

Are you planning on a complete teardown? If you're going to rip it down to empty crank case halves then it won't really matter. I've tried sealing/masking heads while media blasting before and it never keeps everything out. Dry ice blasting sounds really cool, never heard of it before but it makes great sense. Make sure you find a hi-temp clear coat for the jugs. Idk about your motor but the fins on the heads come off with a few screws on the 1100's, could save you a little time.

[luisr320]

The fins on the 83 750 are part of the cylinder and don't come off. They are useless as a cooling method since the cylinders are water cooled. They're only there for aesthetic purpose.

Regarding the fins, don't bother masking them. Just paint everything and use a sand block with 1000 grit at the end, after it's dry to get the aluminum finish on them.

[keb709]

Well I think I'll first try to soda blast the engine the outside of the engine, then hot tank it. If I don't get the effect I want, I'll risk the bead blasting. But only as a last resort. SkullCrusher, I am indeed planning a full teardown.

[luisr320]

Soda blasting will not "erase" the corrosion of the surface. But it will strip the paint and all grease, and if you are planning on doing a paint job like Mattyo did, that will do fine.
If you are looking to have the "au naturel" look of the aluminum, then beadblast it.

[dmeyer302]

FWIW, a strictly aesthetic consideration. Bead blasting may not necessarily be the ready-for-clear finish you're looking for. On steel, bead blasting leaves a very dull finish. Turns out it's perfect for paint, but may be too dull for a natural finish. Hit the bead blasted steel with a wire wheel and it starts to shine up some. I'm not sure if aluminum behaves the same way but be aware of the possibility of needing to use a wire brush, steel wool, etc to get where you want it. Like that 10 year old can of carpet cleaner in your garage says, "test in an inconspicuous area"


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