Make your beat VW engine case look like new. My process.

[Almost Alive]

Before and after.

Step 1: Degrease in a bath of mineral spirits and lacquer thinner.
Step 2: Seal off all oiling holes, lifter bores and distributor drive shaft bearing surface with duct tape.
Step 3: CAREFULLY walnut blast.
Step 4: I remove the tape then use a blower attachment modified with a pickup tube attached to an air compressor hose to shoot the MS and LT mix at the case making sure the mix flows through the oiling holes without issue. Then dry the case with the blower attachment.
Step 5: Prep all sealing surfaces and bearing saddles by buffing WD-40 into the case with an extra fine Scotch-Brite pad. For this case, I also did this on the area's you can see exposed in the engine compartment when all of the tin is in place.
Step 6: The buffing will cause the WD-40 to turn a dark color and get on the case, spray it down once more with the MS/LT mix or even a can of brake clean should work okay at this point and then dry.
Step 7: Use a can of brake clean or carb cleaner with a straw and blow through all of your oiling holes until it comes out clear paying close attention to any possible obstruction. After this, it is a good idea to use a white pipe cleaner through the holes. This will help see if you cleared the holes well enough.
Step 8: Spray the entire case down with Gibbs Penetrating oil to seal the magnesium then let sit overnight. After about 24 hours, go back with a clean white cloth and rub in the rest of the oil left on the case.

[thefladge]

Wow! Looks good.
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[mark tucker]

now pull ALL the gally plugs& oil pick up plug and kleen the crap out of it,ream&tap for plugs, use special reamer&short tap for rear main gally plug so you dont effup the cooler bypass valve chanel/cylinder. then kleen off all the oil real good in your wifes dish washer,lightly etch the entire case by dunken in a barrell of water&about 10% aluminum prep, for about20-30 sec up & down to get it all then dunk in another barrell of kleen watter for 3 min up & down to rince, do it again in another kleen barrell of watter to be sure it is kleen ,hose it off real good then dunk in a barrell of alodine & water soultion,about 75% alodine, dunk up & down for about 5 min,let set about 3 more then swish it around some to be sure it is everywhere. pull it out and rince it good,(yes I know rinse is speeled rong), dry with a kleen oil free air sorce, heat to about 100 degrees to make sure all the watter is gone then use some clear engine paint & paint the thing.(the painting is optional, but you will like the looks of it)you can change the time in the alodine to taylor the color you want, from greentint to gold to blue to purple/blue,and possiably more the longer it stays in, and say good buy to crosion, you can also do all of your aluminum the same, try not to get any steel in the alodine, as it will make the stuff blue faster.I have some that are bright gold, some satin nickel, some blue,some greenish like the oe color was on my new as21 case. it is great on valve covers&intakes,I want to do my carbs but they run so good for the past 8 years I dont want to eff with them (empi hpmx 44's of corse)
or you can leave it as it is and have a dull fur ball in a few weeks. you can also sand the case before doing it.I have a set of empi vc's that look like they have the big flakes of galvinize in them with a gold tint.

[Eaallred]

Glass beads work well too. It all comes down to how well you clean it afterward.
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Eric Allred

You have to remember something: Everybody pities the weak; Jealousy you have to earn.

[&Dan]

Dang! That looks T-Riff.

[Almost Alive]

[JustBuggy]

The walnut blasting does make it look clean but ,........

Is there any way to make the cases kinda shiny like semi polished looking without hand buffing?

[modok]

That's pretty cool

Ask any bearing, they'll tell you they'd rather eat a walnut than a glass bead
They are blind, but some of them can talk..... if you smoke some white rhino and listen real close

[torsionbar]

[nextgen]

Aluminum blocks you can make look like chrome. I know some T-1 blocks are Aluminum but all the T-4 blocks are.

In my case seeing I am using all T-1 upright fanhousing parts, it don't matter because most of the case is hidden.

On a stock 914 with dual carbs Most of the upper parts of the case is visable and when you open the hood between the two carbs is a large area of very shiny alum. if you polishi it.

But doing what you did before polishing is the way to go.
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[Dale M.]

What about "soda" blasting or "dry ice" blasting... Cool thing (pun not intended) is with dry ice blasting is all that is left over is the "crud" removed from engines.... Once dry ice "melts" there is not much left but the "dirt"...

Dale
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All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[mark tucker]

hmm wonder why,nobody has said not to polist the case du to the heat retention it will have??? somebody's sleepen late.the soda blasting does look nice too.

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[slalombuggy]

Wasn't there somone last year who posted pictures of his engine parts chewed to rat sht beacause he blasted the case with glass beads and didn't clean it good enough????? I's use soda or dry ice or just a good cleaning and shot of ghetto chrome in aa can......

brad

[67Callooker]

step one take case to rimco
step two pick up case from rimco

[Max Welton]

[torsionbar]

[Dangermouse]

[nextgen]

Back in the 70's I was a total VW Freak and did what to a normal un vw nut as freaking crazy. I stripped my T1 case down placed the two halfs in my newly moved into, recently married garden apt. shower stall and took a can of Gunk and got naked and took a shower with the case while cleaning it with a brush. Sounded like a good idea till my wife came home and smelled the Gunk. I am married 43 years and that one aways comes up. I think my left ear got blasted so loud by my wife I have hearing loss,ha.
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[Dangermouse]

I think you crossed a line with that one, that beats the dishwasher hands down.
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