Dry ice blasting?

1200ts

1200ts

Hero member
Location
USA - Riverside CA
Any one with experience of dry ice blasting aluminum? I have never done it but have read about it and watched a number of videos. Last one I watched was them blasting a fully assembled car.

The question being I am working on a triple with only 8,300 miles. The engine has no mechanical issues of any kind and no oil leaks to fix. But is has oxidation just like any other old bike. The cases have turned a nice dull grey color.

I don't see any need to take the engine apart but want to make it look better. So am proposing removing it from the frame and dry ice blasting it to hopefully make it look new. As dry ice leaves no residue I don't see any problems if I tape off the intake and exhaust ports. If the dry ice gets in to any part of the engine it will quickly disappear.

So what do you think?

EDIT: I forgot to ask, what about baking soda blasting (sodium bicarbonate)? I know it will make a mess but the soda can be washed away with water and it to should not cause problems if some sneaks in to the engine?
 
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1200ts said:
Any one with experience of dry ice blasting aluminum? I have never done it but have read about it and watched a number of videos. Last one I watched was them blasting a fully assembled car.

The question being I am working on a triple with only 8,300 miles. The engine has no mechanical issues of any kind and no oil leaks to fix. But is has oxidation just like any other old bike. The cases have turned a nice dull grey color.

I don't see any need to take the engine apart but want to make it look better. So am proposing removing it from the frame and dry ice blasting it to hopefully make it look new. As dry ice leaves no residue I don't see any problems if I tape off the intake and exhaust ports. If the dry ice gets in to any part of the engine it will quickly disappear.

So what do you think?
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Someone here had it done 🤔
I can’t remember who it was. Reggie3CL maybe?
 
I asked the same question a couple of weeks back, apparently, it's not the magic potion the videos show. Happy to hear other opinions.
 
Dry ice blasting will definitely not restore the cases to "as new". It is non-abrasive, so will not shift stains and oxidation that have attacked the alloy surface. Dry ice will clean the alloy, but not alter the surface. Soda will restore the alloy surface to "as new", but will also remove/damage any zinc plating on fasteners, better not let the bike get wet afterwards! ;)

There simply is no ideal middle path for this, the most time-consuming process yields the best results unfortunately.

piet
 
Phosphoric acid works great on our cases.

Hard to get, and a little dangerous to bones and teeth, but the results are outstanding.

A toothbrush (you won’t have a use for it anyway) on the grimy parts works a treat while it’s bubbling up.
Just keep it away from the polished bits.
 
chrisk said:
Phosphoric acid works great on our cases.

Hard to get, and a little dangerous to bones and teeth, but the results are outstanding.

A toothbrush (you won’t have a use for it anyway) on the grimy parts works a treat while it’s bubbling up.
Just keep it away from the polished bits.
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Isn't that what's typically used in rust converter?

bazzee
 
Best solution is Laser Cleaning and have side cases polished. You will need to remove motor however.

I have recently done 3 very low Km's triples. Attached are a few pictures showing results on an SFC 1000 motor which was stored since 1991, 14,000kms. This took about 3-4hrs to do and get in-between all the fins on the head, they changed the laser head size from 75mm to 10mm to do this area. Only prep is a very good degrease and placing some rags in the ports and masking anything you do not want touched.

Once cleaned, I always coat with ACF50 as this penetrates and stops water causing oxidisation or rust, it is widely used in the Aero industry and on motors and frames. I do my bikes and cars once/twice a year typically. I buy it in bulk but you can get it in spray can. Best applied as a super fine mist.

The below video link also demo’s a few different types of laser. We used the moving circle (as used on Audi Head in video) as this provides best finish, even power always moving across the surface. There is no surface temp change with all options, contamination is vapourised and there is a large air suction system around the laser. You use painters blue masking tape on anything you do not want lasered – see my test patch pictures. It is amazing technology that provides an original finish.


Hope this helps
 

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Phosphoric acid in bulk can be had at any livestock/horse co-op or similar, also bulk molasses, my much preferred rust treatment agent, followed by phosphoric acid ( diluted ) rinse in the case of fuel tank(s). HTH j
 
Buy a tube of Rubnbuff silver leaf. It's a wax based paint that brings aluminium alloy up like new. Apply sparingly with a toothbrush, leave 10 minutes then polish with a cloth.
 
when I was rebuilding my 82 1200 TS some years ago, I loaded the engine on a trailer and took it to a work site where they were using dry ice blasting to remove graffiti. Heavy duty commercial equipment.

there are likely some photos of the dry ice blasting process somewhere here on the forum. Got the complete engine very clean, but did not shift any of the stains. In my case, a battery had been left in the bike and had split and leaked down the engine case on one side, made a heck of a mess. The dry ice blasting did not help any of that.

After the dry ice blasting I wound up using a chemical cleaner and a wire brush to get the engine cases acceptably stain free, I was so aggressive the engine was too shiny for a while until it oxidized back to a nice clean look.

I would not bother with dry ice blasting a Laverda engine again other than if I was just trying to get it clean enough to then attack the stains with some other process.....
 
Phosphoric acid... Over the counter retails as Ospho, aka Fozz, sold as rust converter, metal paint prep. Buy it by the gallon . Quite mild compared to Sulphuric or Hydrochloric. I use it to remove marine growth when refurbishing dive site mooring balls , and rust removal .
I used Hydroflouric acid as a teenager working in a factory which produced the compound that went inside fluorescent light tubes. Was warned at the time that it would not burn your skin but would penetrate down and burn the bone. Not sure how true that is but made me very careful when handling it.
 
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I used industrial degreaser H7 to remove the easy crud and then Aluprep. which is a pre welding ally cleaner to brighten the crankcases. But the casting is so rough and porus I don't think they will ever be bright . The cylinders were vapor blasted in the US after being rebored there also. They look nice now .
It will have to start putting it all back together soon.
 
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