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Allegedly, the soda blasting media will break up into a fine fine powder when blasting. I’ve always used walnut media as that is what I was told to use. I found this on the internets and it seems reasonable:
”Sodium carbonate, baking soda is an abrasive, it will dissolve in water, but do you want to spray water, mixed with baking soda, into your engine? I wouldn't.
Crushed walnut shells are flammable, Ph neutral and will burn off, if any happen to get into the cylinder, that is why they use crushed walnut shell to decarbonize the intake valves.”
Not sure how I would get soda and water into my engine when all the parts I want to clean are sitting on my workbench and would get thoroughly cleaned again after blasting, but good point. Something to consider.
Do you think the crushed walnut shells will help brighten the aluminum?
No, just posing I suspect, I might've understood it if it was a diesel but as the inlet to the filter is pretty much 1/2-way between the dizzie & the plugs, you'd have stopped before drawing in any water. But my point was that, in our climate, working washers front & rear are far more useful.
I think it's a dust thing in the Outback - there isn't any cold air (during the day).
hehe True about the pose/stopping before the CPU gets wet but the ground is ALWAYS hotter in direct sunlight. Try a stroll in just about any sand dunes.
Even here at 8200 feet the sand in the dunes is well over 140° in direct sunlight.
You are entitled to your own opinions but super large temperature variations near the ground are what cause mirages
Last chance I had to stroll in anything remotely resembling sandunes was on a small Scottish island, so wasn't really aware of the heat.
If your point (I hope I'm following this) is that the temp. of air drawn in to a snorkel is significantly less hot than that at the level of the air cleaner intake, I'm surprised.
Also, I've seen several videos of Ozzies driving through water up to their seat cushions, so some (maybe only a few) do need snorkels for their originally intended , whatever other benefits they might enjoy.
All that said, if I ever get round to replacing the left fender (it's suffered from a couple of close encounters with the scenery) I'll probably re-instate the washer reservoir & not refit the snorkel - although will investigate the problems of a cowl intake on a RHD XJ.
As for what I did today: replaced the missing rear licence plate screw (which, by chance, I found on the hall table) - because that's all it stopped raining long enough to do.
Last edited by UKXJ; Dec 28, 2022 at 02:32 PM.
Reason: 2nd thoughts
No, just posing I suspect, I might've understood it if it was a diesel but as the inlet to the filter is pretty much 1/2-way between the dizzie & the plugs, you'd have stopped before drawing in any water. But my point was that, in our climate, working washers front & rear are far more useful.
When has useful gotten in the way of people's mods?
Finished replacing the rear stab bushings and links today. The rear stabilizer bar ends were so rusted that I had to weld on more meat. OE is 16mm and they were as low as 12mm. While the mounting hardware was off, I replaced the axle U-bolts as one was broken and also cleaned up the mounting plates with a wire wheel and hit them with some rust converter overnight.
Note how Mevotech Supreme ( left) and Moog ( right) are made by the same supplier and are identical except for color.
Im also missing the rear bump stop so I ordered one of those. I broke a mounting bolt to the bump stop plate and it was a real PITA to drill and retap the hole (5/16-18).
Center punched it and drilled it out by steps to 1/4” and ran the tap.
How is the tailpipe mounted to this flex mount? Just a regular clamp?
Just a regular muffler clamp that hold the tail pipe to the hanger.
2 1/4" I think.
They can look it up for you at the store.
I had the same problem with my sway bar when I did the links.
I used a piece of rubber hose.
LOL.
When I finally got around to replacing my non-existent bump stops I busted 1 of the 4 bolts.
I own a rivnut tool so I punched it into the uni-body and put in a 5/16-18.
At least I think that is what it was.
The hole in there was the right size for the rivnut I had to use so that worked out well.
Wow I totally forgot about rivnuts! I actually own a hydraulic rivnut tool set I got for free to test but it’s been hidden away in my toolbox. I’ll have to keep that in mind for busted fasteners all over this thing.
I forgot to add how I removed all of the trans pan bolts and could not get the pan off. The orange factory RTV is too good. I did already “suck out” 4.3 qts of fluid with my automatic extractor and drained another 28oz via the pan drain (so over 5 quarts!). I ended up just putting the screws back in and refilled the trans with five quarts of fluid. I just don’t see the need to open up a fresh can of worms as I’m now only waiting on the return of the cylinder head to finally get this on the road. It’s above freezing today so I might use my precision plant watering tool to try to flush the engine block cooling passages (before the head is installed) as there is a lot of debris I can see in there. I already flushed the heater core with fresh water and the radiator. When I do get this all assembled and operational I’ll do several more flushes with the dishwasher powder trick to get any oil in the system out.
Today I did flush the cooling system individually as the head is not installed. I pushed it out of the garage by hand to keep my garage dry. Small white bits and pieces were observed flowing out. I also poured in some aircraft grade simple green into the radiator and heater core and let it sit for a while before doing another flush. The coolant tank was NASTY with a thick emulsion. Took that out of the engine bay and washed it in the utility sink with hot water. I jacked up the rear diff quite high with the front tires chocked so the engine would drain out the front (since this engine is tilted back so much…). I’m just waiting for the head to return from the machine shop. I can’t wait to get this on the road.
Did you pull the block drain plug out? It's located just above the oil pan on the drivers side of the block. That's how I flushed mine.
No I didn’t even know that existed! I’ll definitely do that when I do a formal flush of the system using the Preston’s schmooze once I get the head installed and get the engine operational.
Me neither - but I gave up even trying to remove them from other engines decades ago.
However I will at least look for it when I flush my cooling system in the Summer.
Well I found this diagram on the internets. I'll give it a try as I have the top end of the engine apart anyways. I'll use my inductive heating tool to get it warmed up before I torque on the plug.
