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If you do not remove the oil splash shield this is what will be left underneath. These are colonies of tiny glass beads just waiting to be sucked into the engine and doing...well you imagine.
Knew a guy who learned the hard way. Totaly destroyed a good motor. Tried to blame the machine shop who did the machine work, but when they tore the motor down the oil pump was filled with the little tiny beads... live and learn :seeya
Re: Caution When Beadblasting Intakes (devveldogg)
Nice find Paul. The 79 clone was almost a 79 bone.
What possessed you to take the baffle off, anyway.
Was it to clean the beads out - or was that dumb luck.
I had a block done up at a machine shop once. They said it was all
freshly tanked, so I took it home and started assembling. Deep down inside
I had the feeling that I should have taken the block to the carwash for a good
blasting out. Well, my feelings turned out right. There musta been some grit
left in the oil passages. The main bearings were toast in no time. :cry
That was my (first) EBay #14007378 manifold project from last autumn. After all the work I put into it I discovered a crack between the bores, tried JB Weld, etc. but eventually put it in the metal recycling bin at work. That was on the advice of Forum Members (some) re the crack. I now have completed another and it is ready for install.
But during the project, and reporting on progress here, someone mentioned that I should pop the rivets on the splash shield and clean underneath. That is when that pic was taken. Although that manifold never found its way onto a car, I sure learned a valuable lesson about beadblasting!