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Hey guys, I'm trying to clean up the grimy looking engine bay, and after an hour of wire brushing one of the metal pipes connecting the two manifolds, it's only marginally better than its untouched brother.
Any other techniques for cleaning it, or does it have to go for a full nickel (or is it cadmium?) plating process ? What would ball park costs be in U.S. For plating?
I've seen some paint it black, I guess that's the path of least resistance
I've also tried cleaning the manifolds with simple green, brake cleaner etc and results there are marginal at best. Suggestions ?
I should mention that the PO has maddeningly painted the manifolds with silver spray. Sigh!
I have tried sandblasting on the air balance pipe at the rear of the engine and while it's quick, it's not a good idea either - the finish is uneven much like the wire brush. And unless you use some high temp clear coat, it looses its shiny appearance in weeks
took me close to 2 years to clean my engine, I used greased lightning full strength in a pump spayer, followed up with warm water in another pump sprayer, for the cross over pipe and some other parts I used a FINE brush attached to a drill, followed up with a FINE lap sander attached to a drill and then scotched bright it, will try to remember to take pictures of the drill attacments I used
you can see the years of grim needed to be cleaned, been using Greased Lighting which I found works the best