Walnut Shells for Cleaning Intake Ports on DI Engines?

Looks just like a 335 bmw I just did for a friend

I used the BG pressure can. Pulling off the head and shelling it works great.
Maybe follow that up with the BG pressure can to get the seats clean also where lots of crude resides.

Did you do a leak down test beforehand?

Looking forward to the results

 

Ughhhhh......

Wow, just wow!!! Can't believe it ran....

 

Ever seen the deposits on 'murican car valves in the early days of emission controls? Those are downright tidy in comparison.

 

No - never seen that Mike but this really blew my mind

 

I'm surprised. The 458 valves look pretty good. I was expecting much worse. I just did a BMW 335, I'm still at a loss as to how it was even able to get air in the cylinders. That one I pulled the head and sent it for a full rebuild. No amount of walnut was going to fix that one.v

 

How many miles? Mine is at 130k, it runs awesome but I'm scared to look

 

I suspect most early (and probably late) model Ferraris with DI will suffer the same fate if driven enough. Problem is, nobody puts enough miles on their F-cars so this design issue has never gotten any attention. Frankly, overall I felt the car ran quite well but I've only had it the past couple K miles (after getting a complete PPI from a Ferrari Dealer including compression and leakdown checks). However, I've tuned many cars and I'm very sensitive to any anomalies. From the beginning I sensed a slight misfire at low rpm during driveaway. I've had several recognized F-car "experts" drive the car and they all said I was being too picky. Well, I suspect (and hope) that this minor driveability issue will be resolved once I'm done. In addition, the possibility of a high rpm valve train failure will be significantly reduced.

 

The adaptation programming in the new cars is incredible. If it's driving ok right now, leave it alone. If you start to develop misfires, do not throw parts at it. Pull the intake first thing.

 

Thank you, will do. Appreciate the tip.

 

For me walnut shelling is now just part of my major like having the fuel injectors cleaned serviced and matched. It is really easy with zero mess.

 

You literally had to use a hammer and chisel to clean out the plugged EGR ports. The deposits on the valves looked like the barnacles on the Titanic. Far worse than what we're seeing here, but the cars still ran... poorly.

In my experience the pictured valves are about the point where an astute owner will notice some running issues, as maxvonauto did. What's surprising to me is that they're that dirty in a high RPM engine, but I'm not that familiar with DI engines and it seems that's not abnormal. Still wondering what kind of fuel was used, since that actually does play a role, at least in my experience.

 

With DI you don't have the benefits of fuel wash within the intake runners that port injection has. Therefore, the type of fuel in regards to port/valve cleaning is almost insignificant.

 

Seems to be a happening thing here with the 335's also. needs to be done with the new air cleaner.

Throw a catch can on also helps

 

Hello, Cylinders 1 through 4 done today. 2010 Ferrari 458 with 55K miles.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Makes sense, Mark. Thanks.

 

Dramatic difference!

 

As I recall the military stopped using walnut shells after a chopper went down killing all when the media plugged an oil galley causing a catastrophic failure.

I had a Commercial dry ice blaster machine for awhile, it will use $100 to $200 an hour in dry ice media alone that quickly sublimates in a day or so unless you use it, most companies are excited about dry ice blasting until you tell them the price $400/hr a specialty demand.

It would work very well for carbon removal, dry ice excels at carbon material removal such as old tar asphalt on equipment leaving no residue but I would guess it would cost the owner at least $1000 using a dry ice blast service on a Ferrari.

Concerning commercial use such as heat exchangers its way too expensive and very slow compared to a 40,000 psi water blaster which I have now, the food industry is where DI has an advantage as it cleans bacteria as well other than that the UHP water blaster is superior and many uses such as Nuclear decontamination.

 

Wow!!!!!!! Awesome!

 

Hey Jeff, first I heard about this was a couple months ago and right away I did not love the idea but seems to be pretty successful (less your chopper example)
I've been looking for dry ice blasting companies local with no real success. Most to big ugly exterior bridges, etc. I want to do my cylinder heads and block. Might need to consider other media blasting with proper cleaning after.

 

Yeah I think you will have a hard time finding a Dry Ice blasting service to do small jobs but you never know.

If you have yourself set on dry ice you can rent a dry ice blaster from Red d arc they can ship to you if you dont have one local, it would cost about $1000 a day in rental dry ice etc plus a compressor.

 

I actually looking into this a couple of years ago. The problem is the bulkiness of the equipment they use and the basic unit of dry ice you have to pay for. I would have had to trailer the car, apart, to them for the service and the basic dry ice minimum was $500 if I remember correctly. Perhaps things have changed since then? I like the idea though.

The next time I have the intake manifolds off of my V12 I think I'll try the walnut shells.

 

Yes, that is a bit cost prohibitive.

I think I will look into this media also. We have a nice glass bead cabinet but not sure Inwant to use it on heads, etc. We do have good cleaners (Ultrasonics) but still concerned.

 

Things are prob the same, the biggest cost is the dry ice media pellets or blocks, if you are in the mid west where there are a lot of CO2 plants dry ice media is cheaper down to maybe .06 cents a lb,you go through several pounds a minute with the machine plus the waste sublimating in front of your eyes, where I am there are no dry ice plants around its trucked from LA .25 to .30 cents a lb. Then you need a big compressor at least 375 cfm fuel cost etc along with the dry ice blaster.

If anything dry ice is less popular now there are alternatives that are enviro friendly such as wet sandblasting that uses glass for media that are much less costly and faster result, dry ice is very slow removal rates.

 

Did some quick research and soda blasting looks to be the best for internal engine components as the remaining media is water soluble.

I guess I need to get a separate system for that.

 

Baking soda will corrode aluminum don't use it

acid base - Corrosion of Aluminum by Baking soda - Chemistry Stack Exchange