How do you get into all of the hard to get spots on the intake manifold? I pressure washed, degreesed, and scrubbed this thing and have most of the easy to get to sopts ready to be painted, but how do you get into the nooks and grannys?

I've been using scotch brite pads to get the oxidation and other crap off this thing and its looking good, but I can't get into these hard areas.

Also what color should I paint it? I thought about red, but everyone does that, so I'm thinking black and then I'm going to polish the fins on the top.

If you cleaned up your intake let me know how you did it, I know it would be easier to take it in with my motor and have them thermo clean it but thats like $20 and I have it almost all cleaned up now.

 

Find a friend with a media blaster.

 

X2

I painted mine black, and polished the fins, and fuel rails. Looks sharp.

media blasting was only $30 and it looked brand new.

 

I had reasonably good luck with Wheel Majic and a toothbrush, but there are still some stains. Good enough to paint over I think.

If I was doing it again, I'd try this stuff. Hot Rod was raving about how well it works one or two issues ago:

http://www.metalwax.com/METAL%20CLEANER.htm

It's like $40 for a half gallon, but you will have a lot left so it should still cost less than paying somebody to media blast.

 

lots of elbow grease, degreaser, rags, tooth brushes, etc. I used duplicolor high-temp primer and than used duplicolor high-temp paint (red) and did a few light coats followed by a heavy coat. It came out nice!

 

Sand blast it.
I might powdercoat mine

 

I used zep 45 degreaser followed up by brake cleaner. Used a toothbrush in the nooks. Took about 30 minutes to clean. I painted mine Ford Red duplicolor with ceramic. I then sanded the top fins and polished the fuel rails. Turned out awesome.
Brandon

 

If you elect to sand or media blast it, tape all the ports off REALLY well. Like 3 layers of gorilla tape. Any sand inside, especially in the EGR passages, would be tough to get out.

After porting my intake I spent about 8 bucks and got soaked at the quarter car wash before I was satisfied all the aluminum was out. That was after pulling the hole plugs and soaking the interior a couple days with wheel cleaner to soften up the carbon residue that was holding some of the chips in like glue.

 

HAHA I spent $6 at the car wash already LOL and I still have to port match it and port it out to 58mm for my TB, but I got most of the crap out of the inside.

Mine looks almost like this right now with just scotchbrite pads...


I'd rather not sandblast it since all of the sand can get inside and my sandblaster is a piece of crap and only works on the high setting and if your not carefull on cast steel it will pit it out and I don't want to find out what it would do to aluminum.

Thanks for the pointers guys, so far I have used 2 cans of engine degreaser and $6 at the car wash and got soaked too. I went to walmart and got one of the scotchbrite pads that goes on a drill and I'm going out to give that a try right now.

I'll post some pics in an hour or 2 when I'm done

 

Steel 'toothbrush' and brake cleaner for stubborn spots.

 

Well I got it painted and took a pic but the battery died and I can't find anymore LOL. I'll have a pic up tomorrow after I clean off the fins on top.

I ended up painting it black, that way it will look kind of stock which is what I'm going for.

BTW how are you guys polishing the fuel rails?

 

since I painted the intake, then did the fins. I just sanded the fins to get them flat. Started with 200, then 320. The wet sand 400. Then used an aluminum polish and rubbed with a cloth. I need to spray a clear on it, but it looks good.

 

Thats exactly what I was going to do.

 

i used a dremel to get the really hard to reach places and for the majority i used body sanding wheels and a diegrinder. yea im a penny pincher. got everyhting really smooth and the fins polished. Painted it with the High Temp stuff from O'Realy's...put abotu 3 coats and then 2 coats clear. turne dout pretty well i think.

 

Alright guys mine is done, well except for the clear coat. I had to go over the fins with 60 grit to even them out, then 100, then 400 and they aren't perfect, but it looks pretty bada$$ IMHO and my fingers hurt from sanding. I can't wait to get some clear on it and see how it will look then. I think I may steal critter's idea and sand my valve covers to make them match my intake. I still need to port match to my gaskets, but I don't have them yet and I need a gasket for a 58mm TB to match that and can't find one by itself.

But anyway heres the pics....