My Horrible Manifold & Stupid Husband
 

OK, Ive actually owned my SVX for about 3 days now, I have spent HOURS cleaning on "him" and my "wonderful" (gritting my teeth husband) came home and decided to suprise me and polish my "aluminum" intake (hes a truck driver and he puts acid on all the aluminum stuff on his truck and then we polish it out ... well now I guess we know that its actually cast iron, (I assume) because it turned BLACK!
He finally LEFT because I was SO MAD at him, he knows this is MY PROJECT, MY CAR, and I didnt want him touching it! Can anyone HELP ME!? Audrey

The entire engine is aluminum so most likely it can be "buffed" out. Best of luck

If you were to lift the manifold with your hands you would know right away it is aluminium.
If this is really important to you, and if you have the time and patience, try a high speed cotton buffer and some mag polish.

You mean I am this mad for nothing? Do you happen to know why it turned black? THANKS for the response, maybe I should call him and tell him!?!? I guess maybe I over reacted but I dont experiment on his peterbilt! LOL:rolleyes:

Age? It's probably completely oxidized. I have a hell of a time making mine glow. The bumpy surface makes it worse.

Did he take off the black center plastic cover?

Find out what kind of acid it is and make sure its completely removed.

Its a 95 , how exactly do you make your "glow"? Im just relieved to know that its now completely messed up...And no he didnt take the black piece off and yes it looks bad too! Anyone have the black piece for sale?

It might be miportant for us to know what kind of acid was used.
Remove the center piece and you'll (maybe) see what I mean by glow. I removed mine for the first time in it's life a couple months ago and compared to the exposed manifold it looked brand new underneath.

This picture will kind of explain what I mean: http://www.subaru-svx.net/photos/fil...u_S./35225.jpg

OK, he said it was called alumi-brite. I went out and took the black piece off and I see what you mean. Thank goodness its just the top part that turned black.

Alumi-brite propaganda:
http://www.prod-chem.com/litsheets/4511.pdf

MSDS:
http://www.wesclean.com/catelog/MSDS/424809.pdf
Says here not to mix it with anything but WATER.

Random person on AF claiming it works wonders:
http://www.automotiveforums.com/t328...um_intake.html

Find out if he used a concentration or dilution. Your best bet is to drown your manifold in water and scrub scrub scrub, then buff buff polish.
Metal polish just does not work unless it is really worked in and like I mentioned the bumpy surface of the mani makes that very difficult.

The aluminum polish I've used (Mothers, I think) comes off onto a buffing cloth as a blackish residue. I'd say this is normal on uncoated aluminum.

dcb

Thanks for all the tips....I am going to try to fix it tomorrow AM....Anybody have the black piece for sale?

Just clean the piece up with some soapy water, dry and paint it with some high temperature engine paint-preferably black:D

I can imagine how you feel. Try the polish and see if it will help. Let us know how it comes out. :)

I will let you know...that is if I ever get out there and stop looking at your cars and locker info! ;) Hey can I use your 12 for a screen saver? I was showing it to the guy at work (who has the only other one in town) and another man asked if that was our family portrait, if our cars got together and had kids! Seriously though, I love that pic!