Transmission Soda, Bead or Walnut Shell Blasting Options

[kconway]

I was wondering if it would be safe to soda, bead or walnut shell blast my transmission whole if I taped off the vent and perhaps the part lines in the case as to not hit the seals? I have a newly rebuilt transmission I'd like to clean up without tearing back down again.

Kev

[Katmanken]

Kevin,

Maybe I wasn't clear and you took it wrong. You wanted an answer on how blasting would allow the ingress of grit and I tried to give it to you in a graphic fashion.

The reason that I used it is I've done a lot of sandblasting, and the grit riccochets off the surfaces and goes everywhere. To clean up, you shove an air nozzle inside your clothes to remove an amazing amount of sand and particles. Your face is coated in grit around the goggles, and when you use the nozzle to clean the sweat adhered particles from your face and hair, you will find that your lips can't be kept closed. No matter how hard you try. In that case, a water mouth rinse and spit removes most of the grit.

The physics behind spreading your lips and spreading the seals/o-rings with air pressure is exactly the same. That is the point that I was trying to make and it came from blasting experience. And, somehow, the sand even managed to find it's way past my ear plugs and into my ears.

I have also used duct tape to mask and it does a pretty good job resisting the blast media. Sand bounces off, but the tape wears over time.

When the duct tape was peeled up, there were little channels of fine grit rammed under the tape and down any fold in the tape. These folds happen when the flat tape is applied to a non-flat surface. New tacky tape works much better at bouncing sand than a roll of old dried tape.

I hope that helps.

Ken