So this is a little embarrasing but... I was doing a little bit of soda blasting on my engine to clean it up. Its on a stand in the garage and every now and then i go out for a soda blast until my lungs cant take it any more. It takes awhile but looks great. Ive got the lower plenum off and haven't worried about covering the inlets too well as the soda just dissolves away with water. But i got alittle carried away yesterday and started blasting with grit, that black sand stuff. Id take a picture of my garage but too ashamed, although it is kinda funny to look at. Now that shits sitting on my valves, Ive got the timing belt off and they all seem to be sitting flush with the seats but still, if i get 1 grain into a bore im screwed right?? So do i just say stuff it and take the heads off? This gives me a chance to examine them and clean off any sand or carbon deposits. But at the cost of replacing the head gaskets Also with the head off i can more easily blast and paint the block, there's a lot of surface rust on the block below the intake, where water pools im sure. Also can replace gaskets on the pipe that the thermo sits in. Doesn't seem like any other way to get that off, there's that 1 little bolt siting under the head. While im at this point do i replace my valves and springs with stronger ones so i don't have to take the head off again. Head gaskets are not getting any cheaper. Note the engine has only got 93000k on it but its a jap import so cant be trusted.Track stickers are present the windscreen too in jap also. Mighta been thrashed.. Ive also been sanding the inside on the lower plenum to casting marks and to polish up to increase flow. Soon i will buy a set of baker-lite gaskets and port match to them, but no heavy porting to the heads, just matching. Or are these gaskets crap? I wanted to polish the inside of the upper plenum and had a look at a few thread here. Extrusion seemed to be the go but way out of my price league. So i was thinking of getting a bottle brush hone and run it thru the upper plenum? Any reason why this is a bad idea? or why i haven't seen it done? I know the gain is minimal but still...
