Any home ideas for completely cleaning an intake? I'm talking about home brewed ideas on possibly vat'ing one in a tub or something to also clean the inside...not just the outside. Was thinking about using a 20 or 30 gallon tote and using a solvent or cleaner. First idea is Simple Green. I've soaked aluminum in Simple Green before and it cleaned small parts ok, but too long and it turns them black. Any thoughts?
Not that this is possible today (the process has changed from the old way of "Hot Tanking") but aluminum is something that should never be hot tanked in the old process, sense of the words. There are many things that can be used to clean aluminum, most are some form of mild acid baths. There are drawbacks to these in that if you do not neutralize the acids afterwards, then you've poured money down the drain. Good old oven cleaner can be used to clean aluminum, but it has to be done in such a way as to limit the amount of time the stuff is in contact with it. And washed thoroughly afterwards to neutralize the acid.
Aluminum brite will also turn aluminum black if left on too long. Or at least it did 20 years ago. I assume it's formula hasn't changed since then.
If you're going to do it, spray it on, wait a few seconds then wash it off. Don't let it sit too long, do it in short applications to get a feel for what you're doing.
"deep cleaning"?.. would be hot tanking and bead blasting. Glass gives a shinier finish. Unless it's fairly clean to begin with ..everything else will only fall short to about.. "good enough".
Shouldn't need to clean the inside. Mask off all openings, and glass-bead blast it. It'll look brand-new. Painting it with Duplicolor's aluminum color engine enamel will make it look new for much longer (prevent oxidizing).
