soda blasting

motoddrob

motoddrob

Hero member
Location
S/W Australia
What's the general opinion on soda blasting an assembled motor out of the frame with all the orifices blocked off???
I wouldn't do it with abrasive sand/beads etc but bicarb being water soluble shouldn't be a problem????
Thoughts/opinions???
Rob
 
motoddrob said:
What's the general opinion on soda blasting an assembled motor out of the frame with all the orifices blocked off???
I wouldn't do it with abrasive sand/beads etc but bicarb being water soluble shouldn't be a problem????
Thoughts/opinions???
Rob
Click to expand...

Hi Rob

I did soda blast an assembled Kawasaki KZ 650 SR engine with my home made soda blaster a couple of months ago. I used all of one 50 lb sack of soda, and most of a second 50 lb sack of soda. I did make block off plates. The engine came out beautifully, I pressure washed the blasted motor with water, got all the soda off the exterior surfaces.

For reasons unrelated to the engine cleaning, I then wound up stripping the cleaned engine to the bare cases. There was a lot of soda in the engine despite the block off plates, I was using about 100 psi when blasting, it looked like some of the soda got in through gasket surfaces, especially between the crankcase halves. The soda is not abrasive the way glass beads or sand would be, I think if you just flushed the engine out a couple of times after blasting with solvent, or even cheap oil, that should get most of the soda out, and what would be left wouldn't be harmful to an engine that was then going back into regular use with regular oil changes that would flush out the last of the soda residue. However, if the engine wasn't going back into regular use, I wouldn't be happy about the soda staying in the engine.

Paul LeClair
 
Don't do it Rob, it is not worth the risk.

A gasket set is not expensive and you got plenty time on your hands. If it is a Laverda motor and it has never seen salty roads then it should not realy need blasting just a little wheel cleaner and a lot of elbow grease.



    Keith
 
Rob,

A few of us over here have done it. Mactriple put me on to it. I did my engine on the grass outside my shed but I paid a professional to do it though. Prior to him doing it I stuffed and sealed the shit out of the engine and checked all the covers etc. Subsequent episodes dismantling both side covers, the tappet cover and the selector box have shown there to be no infiltration of any media.

The dude who did it was using a couple of hundred grands worth of equipment so maybe this was a factor. He also was a fellow bike rider. Macca did his own so if you can get control of the gear I would. 

I know there's a bit of doubt from some of the members on here but from my experience I can't agree. I'm a lazy prick when it comes to spending hours scrubbing the crap out of the cases so I was more than happy throwing this guy $100.00 and getting a pretty clean engine and a lot of dead grass. I fucken hate mowing the grass. They should have killed that prick Victa.

Cheers
Chris
 
Rob, it's each to his own of course but I'm with Keith on this. Blasting media, however benign , finds its way into everything. I'm absolutely convinced that a lot of the post restoration woes you read about on forums are created by vapour blasting or whatever process has been used during a rebuild. Soda might be relatively harmless but I wouldn't want it anywhere near my engine internals. I'd risk it if I was going to do a full strip afterwards so I could be absolutely sure all the media had been rinsed out, otherwise I'd rely on old fashioned elbow grease.
 
Well, I'll think I'll err on the side of caution. Head and barrells are off and everything is ready to reassemble.
Kind of like the idea of cleaning the cases somehow and like Chris, being a lazy prick, I like the easy options too.
But i am a cautious lazy prick. I brought 5 litres of CT18 today so I'll just put it all back together and get the scrubbing brushes out.

Hey Chris, I also hate lawn and don't have any, but Victas are for poofters, I use a 5' slasher to keep my native flora where they need to be!

Cheers :)
 
Go on, I'll bite...what's a Victa? Animal, vegetable or mineral?
 
I'm a little curious, can not translate soda into Danish. Can you not explain a little more what soda is. Google wants it to be sparkling water.

Ole
 
Rob , I've had a few attempts at soda and bead blasting of assembled components  with custom made blanks fitted and have been truely gobsmacked at the amount of blast media that worked it's way through. The truth is, it just isn't worth the risk in my humble opinion. Anyway the "used" look is in you know.
                                        Tim
 
Rob,
I have had good results with soda blasting. I've used it on an 850 Monza, 1972 MV 750s, and just recently on an 1100 Sport motor. I will be using it to do the SFC750 next year. If different alloys are used by the manufacturerthen the final result will be a little patchy. The MVs use a different alloy on the shaft drive cover and when done it was noticeable so I then bead blasted it. All the different blasting processes give a different finish, but I was happy with the finish. It is not a good process to use on frames as it doesn't remove the traces of rust under the paint.
Have a look at the following, the first is the 750:-
IMG_0046.jpg


115-1560_IMG.jpg


For a better look at the 750, it is in the projects section of www.justbikes.com.au
Ian
 
That MV looks bloody lovely McT . I think i may be developing a strong dislike for you ! Back in the seventies my father had a choice of buy a Trident or an MV which wern't shifting from the London dealers at the time ..............he got the Trident , hindsight is a wonderfull thing .
                                Tim
 
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