Bead blasted engine photos?

[kvanderploeg]

Has anyone bead blasted their engine and left it with that "rough" surface? If so, do you have any good pics of it assembled? I like the looks of some of the powder coated engines, but I'm still considering big bore and re-phase next year, so I'd rather hold off on making the engine too pretty this year. Thanks!

Kent

 

[Tim of DO THE TON]

I just had my cases soda blasted and am leaving them raw. The cylinder head was worked up (ported, titanium valves etc.) by Ryan at 707 Racing and he bead blasted it I believe. The cylinders are the 750cc kit from MikesXS - think they might be painted.

Everything looks nice together. Soda leaves a pretty smooth finish.

 

[kvanderploeg]

Thanks, Tim! Looks great! The other piece I forgot to mention is that I would prefer to not tear the engine down for this. From what I've read, that tends to relegate me using organic media. Good to see what soda alone can do.

Kent

 

[Tim of DO THE TON]

I should mention that this is a 1984 engine (5V5) which had the factory black paint on it. You can see the remnants of the finish in the rotor area and a bit in the starting gear cover area.

I had it done professionally for about $50 for the 2 cases. Vapor blasting is IMHO the way to go, but scarce (non existent) in Canada and again, you're into tearing it down.

While many have talked about blasting the engine intact, I haven't seen anybody actually do it and live to tell, so who knows.

 

[kvanderploeg]

I had never heard of vapor blasting. I'll talk to my vendor to see what he thinks about media blasting on a complete engine. Might just have to run with an "ugly" engine until I'm ready for a rebuild.

Kent

 

[Tim of DO THE TON]

I'd leave it and go vapor when you do the rebuild. Google images of it. Common in the UK.

This is the only shop in the US I've seen offering the service. If I was in the US they would have done my engine but shipping back and forth to Canada is too expensive.

http://www.vaporblasting.biz/