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Not for a while, car issues have caused me to start driving the w210 again as a daily and its made me remember how much I actually like driving that car.@lt1fire When are you starting the swap? I am looking forward to the details.
No Al. Original intent of it was to remove part of the beat to hell hood sheet metal. up side is the amount of heat that thing lets out. You can see the heat waves under the right circumstances. Great defroster in the winter.Stan are you going to have the airbox feed from the cowl induction?
Stan, did this have clearcoat on it? What did you use to buff? The compound, I mean.Beautiful Saturday and I actually got some work done on our own truck. Color sanded to 1200 and 2000 and first cut. Final cut and buff to go.
Channeling my inner Dave Rushing
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This stuff? You're not kidding, not cheap! But waaaay cheaper than a paint job, for sure.Yes, base coat clear coat job. I use 3M compound and then 3M machine polishing compound. Not cheap stuff but works very well.
...and here are the results:
Lower plenum half
Upper plenum half
The best results were in the PCV valve tube and EGR galley. They were both completely plugged with solid carbon. Now they are both clean.
On the whole, I'm satisfied with the product, but not my process. If I could have applied it uniformly and used a stiff, short brass bristle brush, it would have polished better than new. As it is now, it is significantly cleaner than it was.
My thoughts:
1. Read and follow the warnings on the label. This stuff will take the hair off a dog (if you are so inclined, and if the dog isn't paying attention).
2. Really use rubber gloves, the Playtex kitchen kind, not the "I don't want greasy hands" nitrile kind.
3. Make sure there's positive ventilation; I didn't have any problems, but I was working next to an open door (garage) and window (laundry room).
4. This stuff absolutely eats any carbon it touches. That said, it won't remove what it doesn't touch. It's nearly impossible to coat the entire interior surface of the bends. Maybe if I had thought ahead and sealed one side and poured about an ounce into each chamber and then rolled it around, but that won't work for the upper half, since it has the open middle chamber. As it was, I used less than a quarter of a pint (I was using a half pint pickling jar, so whatever half that amounts to) for two complete cleaning sessions, both upper and lower half.
5. The label says apply and let sit for at least an hour, preferably 5, and overnight if you can.
-I'd give it an hour or less, and then brush it off.
-I brushed under running water to remove the gel after soaking; I'd recommend that approach.
-it starts dissolving the carbon immediately and the more carbon you expose to the gel, the more it removes.
-the concentration, that is to say, the admixture of carbon to the gel, doesn't seem to affect the dissolution properties at all.
6. I used all the brushes I had, from acid brushes and an art brush to apply it, to plastic and brass "toothbush" type brushes, along with plastic bristle bottle brushes to remove the residue.
-the gel didn't have any effect on the brushes or bristles, but it did dissolve the glue holding the art brush bristles to the handle (it also removed all the paint it touched on my parts washing tank lid- immediately and completely).
-you don't need to scrub the carbon to remove it, the gel does that on its own, but you do need to scrub it (about like you're brushing your teeth) to remove the gel and carbon after the solvent dissipates. This is why I don't think leaving it for more than an hour is useful.
-the carbon the gel doesn't dissolve won't stick to the aluminum anymore, so you need to brush it off. I had chips of carbon flaking off for the entire hour I was cleaning, even after the top coat of carbon dissolved.
-the brush bristles should be as short as possible, so the gel winds up on the surface to be cleaned, and not filling the brush.
7. I could not get to the inside of the inside bends. If I had the use of a Ø2-2.5" bottle brush, maybe. A Ø2-2.5", 12" long bottle brush, with a 4" handle and 1/8"-1/4" bristles, to both apply and remove the gel, and that would bend 90° anywhere along the length, would be ideal. The brush needs to be able to rotate to clean the entire tube surface, but rotating by hand is entirely sufficient. The chemical does all the heavy lifting.
8. The label says to make sure the surface is completely cold before applying the gel. I think this is because it's labeled for cleaning pots, pans, griddles and the like, and it's highly flammable. I don't think the temperature - room or less, matters at all.
The gel appears to be safe on steel, aluminum and PVC (my laundry sink) - I'm hoping the same for the drainpipes. It did not clean the concrete I dropped it on. It just sat there until I wiped it up. I wouldn't say it's water soluble, since it contains a petroleum distillate, but the gel dissolves readily in water and didn't leave any residue on the laundry sink.
This is my new favorite chemical. Hands down.
It will definitely do the job. But...you can burn diesel crud off. Heat it hot enough to burn and then feed it with compressed air until it's clean. That won't work with gas engines, though; not enough flammable in the carbon deposit. The Carbon Off is much cleaner to use, though. Not as exciting, but cleaner.Hmmm may try this, gointbto take the intake off the diesel benz for a cleaning