Ultrasonic bath cleaning

[HarryB]

So I am thinking of sending my intake manifold to be ultrasonic bath cleaned. I actually plan on grinding casting flash off it, sandblasting, and then have it ultrasonic cleaned to get rid of any blast media residue as well as oil/carbon deposits on the inside.

I am also thinking of sending over my spare throttle body to be cleaned, but I am afraid that it will damage the shaft bearings and might remove the throttle plate coating. Any experiences with that? What about the IACV?

[kung fu jesus]

Any parts you send out for cleaning, I would recommend stripping the electronics off. I've sent out IMs for tank cleaning and have been happy with the results. I sent my e30 intake out and more recently the powdercoated IM on my 1.6 when I had the engine machined. The e30 IM was absolutely horrible. Almost 200k and 30 years on it. The injectors literally had sandcastles on the pintels. After cleaning the IM, TB, and installing refurbed injectors, that car ran and responded sooo much better. It idled perfectly, too.

I rebuilt the IM assemblies with new seals and gaskets, removed all the pieces that are bolted or screwed to it. For the TB, I would most definitely remove the IACV first. As for the shaft and plate, I might do that just to try epoxy the screws to the shaft afterwards. It's a SM fix to prevent the shaft from breaking, but it's not a guarantee. From what others shared with me, the TB shaft breaks at the screw holes from vibration and stress, then the engine ingests the screws and whatnot, boom. Sometime the screws and bits make it through alright. That's where the Skunk2 aftermarket TB is supposed to be helpful. This is just an overview.

[Phatmiata]

I came into this thread looking for more fat chick jokes from AgentOrange........... :punchface:

[freedomgli]

I think it all depends on what solution the shop uses for the ultrasonic bath. My friends have smaller setups for cleaning carburetors and they just use citrus solvent cleaner/ degreaser or simple green diluted in water. So long as the parts aren't caked in an excessive amount of abrasive material like sand that can attack the part once floating in solution and so long as the cleaning solution itself isn't too chemically aggressive I don't think the ultrasonic cleaner will do harm to the throttle plate coating. But yes, water will get in wherever grease is supposed to be and the grease will be displaced. I don't recall what the throttle shaft bearings look like but plan on them being affected by the cleaning process. Are they readily serviceable? I imagine it's difficult to repack them with new grease even with a hypodermic needle.

[HarryB]

TBH I am not entirely sure if the Miata TBs have bearings on the shaft or how they look like. I could live with manually cleaning the "inner workings" of the TB by hand, but since I am cleaning/powdercoating almost everything in the engine bay, a dirty TB casting would tickle my OCD, hence the question. Guess I could make a plate to "seal" the TB/IM flange and soda blast it... Thank god I have a spare TB! :P

[ScratchNSniff]

I sandblast and coat bare IM's, just make sure to blast them out extremely well afterwards with air...I may be doing it wrong, but have never had an issue...

[HarryB]

Do not think you are doing it wrong, but I also want to get rid of the gunk accumulated in there over the years, so why not? :)

[ScratchNSniff]

Ah, so this will basically do the inside of the manifolds as well...that actually makes good sense...

[HarryB]

Yeah, the parts are being submerged and fully cleaned wherever the fluid can get its way into.

[kung fu jesus]

I'm not gonna say who did this, but pre-soaking an IM in an organic cleaner then putting it in a dishwasher on a hi-temp wash cycle (with detergent), no dry cycle, works preeeety good.