So I have a large pile of parts sitting on my pool table and trying to build up the nerve to tackle all the upgrades on my 04 6.0. My question is; I have read many posts about having my intake manifold dipped to clean it. I talked to a machine shop friend of mine who said i should let him bead blast the inside and outside to completely clean it. $20.00. Is this detrimental to the manifold or a common practice?

 

It won't hurt anything. It'll look brand new when he's done. You can't do that yourself for $20.

 

your buddy method probably the best

but I used Purple power cleaner and my pressure washer got alot of the mess I cleaned all the egr valve and IAT2 sensor in the manafold with it too there a mess

Some use foam carb cleaner and pressure wash

 

I'll be checking on the cost of hot tanking it, but if it's over $40 or so I'll be breaking out the purple cleaner and steam cleaner.

 

Thanks for the info. I thought $20.00 was a good deal, so i guess that is the direction I will go.

 

Can you hot tank aluminum?

 

I used 4 cans of Brakleen and my pressure washer. It took about an hour to clean the inside, got about 5 pounds of black greasy goo out of it until it was clean. If a gas engine had to injest that crap it would kill it.

 

It depends on what chemicals they use. I may just throw it back on without cleaning it. There is just a light coating of soot on the inside, nothing restricting flow. My concern in cleaning it myself is knocking stuff loose and not getting it out, then having chunks of that crap going into the engine later.

 

With sand blasting I would be hesitant that your friend can get all of the angles inside the IM to fully clean all the gunk out. Your one of the main access points to the inside of the IM is thru the 16 cylinder inlets (IM outlets). But cleaning thru these holes only gives you a direct shot at what is actually the top of the IM. The thickest gunk settles on the bottom of the IM (top if cleaning thru port holes).

I used carb chemdip from autozone and a long lint cleaner from a dryer to get all the various angles with brissels. Then I loaded it up and took it to a carwash with a high temp degrease setting and put about 5 -10 dollars worth of quarters thru it. The key to that was the high temp water would heat up the gunk enough to break it up and help it flush out. Be glade your don't have the MY03 IM w/ the crossover port in the back of it.

As far as a hot tank, yes you need to make sure the chemicals in the tank are not to strong for the AL. Most of the ones I called (and I called alot in my area) only had tanks set up for cast blocks and heads. Transmission shops with tranny case cleaners use a citrus chemical and high pressure spray, but they don't get the inside very good since they are designed to clean the outside of a tranny case (not the inside). I was able to find one guy at the time, but he said his chemicals weren't set up right and that it was turning the AL black.


But good luck and like cartmanea said: be concerned about knocking stuff loose and not getting it out.

 

With sand blasting I would be hesitant that your friend can get all of the angles inside the IM to fully clean all the gunk out. Your one of the main access points to the inside of the IM is thru the 16 cylinder inlets (IM outlets). But cleaning thru these holes only gives you a direct shot at what is actually the top of the IM. The thickest gunk settles on the bottom of the IM (top if cleaning thru port holes).

I kind of wondered about this since I have not seen it off the truck yet.

 

Mine's an '03 with the crossover, trying to find an '04+ intake to put on it so I don't have to pull turbo to remove the intake in the future. Though I think now I'll just throw it back on without cleaning since it's just sooty and not plugged up at all.

 

I worked in a machine shop years ago. We had 2 vats. One was "caustic Soda" with burners underneath and all the cast iron and steel parts went in there. The aluminum parts went in a 100gal vat with no heat. Sweet smelling with an oily film on top. Pistons and intakes and stuff came out lookin like new most of the time. I think EPA and even OSHA has changed the landscape on solvents in the workplace since then. Our current approved chemical for soaking and vats is mineral spirits. You can often do a better job just scraping parts with a pocket knife.

 

Don't the newest ultrasonic tanks just use water and detergent?

 

I think the ultrasonic cleaners physically remove crud and work pretty well with straight water. (ever notice the cleaner at the dentist office?) but the citrus based could be put in them in industrial applications. It's still possible to get the lye based chemicals for the "hot tank" but there's licenses and inspections and disposal fees are a biotch. My local machine shop has a tank for cylinder heads and blocks with a spinning table in the bottom and jets spraying towards the center. It uses scalding hot citrus solvent and filters to recover the sludge. Still don't think it's as good as submersing the part but it's legal and manageable. I know from my current job in aviation an agitator tank with mineral spirits is a poor substitute for a old fashioned hot tank. I wish I could remember what was in that aluminum cleaner tank but we just used it and didn't pay much attention. Even in mid '80s it was serviced by another company.

 

take it to radaitor shop they can tank it. they do aluminum cores all the time.