The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop sandblasting intake/exhaust manifolds?

I currently have the manifolds pulled off the 235 and have been soaking and scrubbing the parts with parts washer fluid, but there's still some build-up of crud plus some rust I wouldn't mind getting off before I paint them. I was thinking about stuffing the manifolds with paper towels, duct taping over all the mounting surfaces, blasting them, then soak and thoroughly cleaning the parts again to get any media out. Is there a better way to clean these parts or a reason I shouldn't do this?

Just blast them inside and out and really clean them when you are done. They were sandcasted when new, so you think Chevrolet spent a lot of time cleaning them? You can get them hot tanked at a shop, but that won't remove rust. I wouldn't think twice about blasting. Joe

Neil,

While you have them off, take a moment to lay a straight edge across the flanges. These manifolds warp often and this would be the ideal time to have the set faced at a automotive machine shop.

Stuart

One other thing you could do is take them to a powder coater they will bead blast them and powder coat them. They can coat them with a space age powder coat in natural cast color and they will run a lot cooler and keep them looking new for a long long time and your rust problems are solved by being fully encapsulated in powder coat.
62Blue

I had my manifolds powder coated with a special coating and when I dropped them off the powder coater here in Calif. told me they will run cooler with this spaceage material they put on them. I havent fired up the engine yet and it will be awhile but will let you know if it is true as I have a heat senser thermo tool to check the temp. when I fire it off. I believe it is the same stuff they put on the new headers as it comes in Brite Silver and Natural Cast color which is a Gray color. Just what the coater told me. If you would like his phone number and bussiness name I can get it for you.

Don
62Blue

Ceramic coating and powder coating are different processes.

http://www.e-techpowdercoating.com/hot_powder_coating_applications.htm

http://www.finishlinecoatings.com/faq.htm

http://www.querycat.com/faq/294a82f8ea54fb53040d5756315b2ca6

Denny.......he's referring to Ceramic coatings.
These are done by a company called H.P.C. in Australia and the coatings are made from a ceramic substance.
http://www.hpcoatings.com.au/
Just like the space shuttle tiles,these are very heat resistant which keeps all of the exhaust gas heat inside the pipe, not radiating off into your engine bay.

They come in a few different finishes....black, silver, mirror finish etc.

Thanks fellows for the correction it is ceramic coating. Sorry for the mistake.
62Blue

Thanks for all of the replies and input!

The manifolds have been blasted and are now coated with high temp paint. If I wasn't working on the truck with a small budget I would seriously consider ceramic coating, but for this project I can't justify spending that much on those parts.

My next question... would it be a bad idea to bake the manifolds in the kitchen oven to cure the paint? The instructions say that's one way to cure the paint and since I'm not going to have the truck running for awhile I would rather cure the paint now than later. Are there any hazards to doing that in an oven that's used for food?

Oh and Stuart, thanks for the suggestion to check how straight they were. Fortunately they are dead-on flush but I had forgotten about checking them!

Use the barbeque if you have a marriage to save. The instructions with my high heat paint said to bake it while still wet which I did and it has held up great. Check your can and you might want to blast again, spray, and cook right away.

I use an old gas range in the gun shop to heat-cure a finishing product called Cerama-Coat. I don't think I'd risk having to live in the shop full time by doing the same thing in the kitchen! Baked paint has a very nasty, long-lasting smell!
Jerry