I cleaned the valves, or at least attempted to clean them today. Here were some of my processes/take aways:
- Pulled Spark plugs (taped holes closed) & Venom Bar to make turning the crank easier (23mm socket and 1/2 ratchet - was effortless to turn)
- Taped all cylinders closed with 2" painters tape, then cut out cylinder 1 with a scalpel, walnut blasted it, then taped it closed and cut out cylinder 2, so forth and so on
- I started off with a plastic drop cloth covering the entire engine bay, with just a single hole cut out. Eventually this became a pain in the *** because the vacuum kept sucking the plastic into it.
- The suction adapter for a Mini cooper prevented any walnut media from getting into the engine bay.
- Instead of the suction adapter, I preferred simply sticking a vacuum attachment into the cylinder while blasting. I preferred this because I could actually see where I was blasting as opposed to being pretty blind with the mini adapter. Some walnut media got into the engine bay this way, but it was very minimal.
- Whether I was using the suction adapter or simply shoving a vacuum attachment in, the use of a long air blow gun was instrumental in my success.
- The dental style picks were very helpful in scraping off excess material. I didn't go crazy with this because I have a bad lower back and it was killing me to bend over.
- Some of the cylinders turned out better than others.
- I tried to spray carb cleaner in one of the cylinders but despite changing out nozzles, I couldn't get anything to come out of the aerosol can. I used WD-40 instead.....I'm not really sure this helped.
- I've never sandblasted or media blasted in my life, but it seemed to work best to pull the trigger and release, and then repeat a million times as opposed to pulling trigger and holding it in. When I simply held it in the vacuum couldn't keep up (at least with the mini cooper adapter in place and both valves filled completely up with walnut media)
- I would run the vacuum and media blaster then switch the media blaster for the air blow gun long nozzle to blow out the cylinder then would inspect with a flashlight, see where I needed to focus on next, then put the media blaster back on the air hose and go after it. It seemed like I would repeat this process anywhere from 10-15 times per cylinder.
- A 24lb bag of the same walnut media that
@raygun listed from Amazon cost $24.99, I MAYBE used 2-3 pounds.
- At the end I taped the last cylinder up and took the blow gun and blew out the engine bay, there really wasn't much walnut media.
- I didn't use or need a mask to do the entire job.
The only reason I even pulled my intake off was to install a throttle body and intake spacer from Performance Auto Werks that I got at NASSAM 2018. I didn't get my cylinders as **** and span as some people may strive for, I just wanted to clean them up a little. Overall it was a very easy process, just time consuming.
My wife came home from work at the time that I was bolting the intake back up, this weekend I'll get everything hooked up and fire it up.
I bought new AC-Delco 42-108 spark plugs off eBay for $14.50, will use anti-seize on install. Does a 0.032 spark gap sound right?
