The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop best way to clean cast iron manifold

Does anyone have good tips for cleaning the original rusty cast iron manifolds? Lots of nooks and little spaces to get to. I just want them pretty clean so I can use the manifold dressing or high heat paint, but they need cleaned a bit first. Will the electrolysis work on cast iron?

Blasting works well. Try glass bead or ground glass. You can get it at any place that sells sand blasting supplies

If you are planning to use Calyx dressing, you might want to degrease before and after blasting. Then, warm the manifold for a while in a vented oven (and let it cool). This will drive off any volatile matter and perhaps better clear the pores.

Tim

..... sandblasted mine in the cabinet. Then rubbed the calyx on and it really looks good. It will usually "rub off" on you just a little until you start the engine and get it hot. I put on a rubber glove and hand rubbed mine. A small can of the calyx will go a loooong way. The nice thing is it is easy to touch up later on.

I sand blasted mine which made it look new and then used Por15 for a coating which looks good for a while and then the rust starts to break out on it.
Course thats because it's not kept in a dry place but then where is a dry place with no humidity in the state of Mo.
I wish there was a coating that could stand up to humidity and keep rust out.
Dan

Always clean anything before you perform any preperation or preservation. Clean before and after you prep your project; then if you don't get to it right away clean it before you start again. You don't want to 'push' anything into the surface prior to applying any finishing product. Never apply silicone to anything except maybe rubber. Silicone is tough to remove.
ALWAYS start with a cleaning.

I had mine bead blasted and they looked brand new.

Just a suggestion...

I have pretty limited means right now, 1 car garage, very little money to put into the truck, definitely not enough dough or space for a big compressor and bead blasting cabinet.

So when I wanted to de-rust my manifolds, I used phosphoric acid (availiable at home depot). 4 gallons will run you about $65 and it will clean them up perfectly (and you can reuse, and reuse etc. etc. . I just did it in a 5 gallon bucket, and did them 1/2 at a time. make sure to hose it off, and dry with an old towel afterward, of else you'll be left with a layer of white phosphoric acid dust. Just got done with the intake last night, and it looks brand new. If there's heavy rusting (There most likely will be on the exhaust manifold) there will be a light layer of grey crud left on there afterward. About 10 minutes with a wire brush and it will be good as new.

I'll get pictures posted sometime soon, it's amazing what a difference it has made.

i agree with the others that bead blasting is the bees knees, but like my Dad always says "poor folk got poor ways"

Why not have them Cermic coated and they will stay like new for a long time.
I will dig out my bill but I think it cost $150.00 dollars to do them. That was 3 or 4yrs. ago and the process was new then.
Don
62Blue

The phosphoric acid does a great job. I cleaned up a lot of parts from my truck with it. Drying after the rinse is important to avoid flash rusting.

I had mine blasted as well.a local guy did them and some brackets for me for $30.00.....I then used POR-15 factory grey manifold paint....looks nice........dave

I sand blasted mine; make sure the blaster covers the nachined surfaces with a blast proof tape. Then I powder coated it top and bottom. No rust. You can powder coat the water passages too; I donno about the fuel/air tunnels; I think the rough suirface helps tumble the fuel/air charge, but I could be wrong.

You can always use electrolysis. place a scrap piece of metal in a plastic tub. connect a positive cable from a non-automatic battery charger to the scrap metal. Place the negative cable on the manifold. put it in water that has had baking soda or lye added to the water. keep the two parts seperated, turn on the charger and watch the magic work. Let it go overnight and pull out the part. Wash it with a stiff bristled brush, rinse, and dry. The process will remove rust from all the pores, inside and out. If using lye, it will also remove paint. Works on all types of metals. Used for all the parts of the last tractor that I restored. Saves lots of elbow grease and money.