Will bead blasting a TPI intake manifold to clean it up hurt it ?

 

No.

 

There are a few things to be careful about, however. Make sure you avoid the injector mounting holes so you don't damage the finish or embed glass into the casting (yes, the glass will stick there). Avoid all the threaded holes for the same reasons. Clean up the intake thoroughly before getting it near your engine. All those microscopic glass shards and metal particles would not be a good thing to ingest into your cylinders or oiling system. Glass is a lot harder than anything used to build you engine, and will win the battle in a show-down.

 

I think maybe I will just use some degreaser, I don't have the stuff to do it myself. So I would have to take it to have it done and you can't really see much of it anyway when it is all back together. I did do a search on this and someone said it looks great at first but grease and dirt stick to it pretty easy because of the pourous(sp?) finish it leaves.If any one has had any of there aluminum blasted let me know how it held up.I am still thinking about getting the A.C. bracket and alternator/p.s. pump bracket done.They are a mess and I can't seem to get them clean,and on my year car they are huge and will make the rest of the engine look like crap if I can't get them cleaned up.I am even considering painting them black,the engine is painted red and I think this would look pretty good.

 

IMO it's a waste of time. I bead blasted the plenum on my GTA and cleaned everything up, then clear coated them, but in a very short period of time driving it you could not even tell I had done it. I helped a friend with his TPI vette and he just painted the induction with aluminum colored paint, looked much better than my bead blasting job. And, he didn't have to hot-tank his parts afterward to feel safe using them.

 

Keep in mind that there are several different types of blasting, you can clean things up considerably with just sandblasting, you can then switch to an oxide (forget all the types) and "smooth" out what the sand has done.

Then switch to a different media and get darn near a shine on Aluminum....ofcourse if you have to pay for all of this, you're probably better off just polishing stuff yourself and skip the blasting.

FWIW, when I blast Al, I start with sand, then Al.Oxide, then walnut shells, then polish it on the buffer wheel. The reason I do it this way is just to make the "shining" part easier...the whole process may take longer than other guys, but I just crank up the stereo and keep a cold-pack close by