Combating the effects of Purple Power on aluminum intake

[evan_flatt69]

Well long story short I got full strength purple power on my aluminum intake and evidently couldn't spray it off in time so now it looks like it was burnt and sat in the dead sea for a year in some spots. I was wondering if there is anyway I could try to get this stuff off...

[F100builder]

Remove it and bead blast it???

[evan_flatt69]

Just looked at the engine again. There is ALOT of paint missing and where it is missing it is brown. It distributor, water fittings, and intake look like they are bone dry and corroded. I don't know what to do now..

[eggman918]

I think the first thing to do is rinse it off with baking soda water mix to neutralize the acid already there
after that am not sure how to refinish.
Steve.

[averagef250]

Hydroflouric acid makes aluminum bright. It's marketed in very dilluted form as lume-brite among other names. Don't get it on you, hydroflouric goes right through skin and eats you from the inside out.

*I think* phosphoric acid is often used as a heavy duty aluminum safe degreaser/cleaner, but will corrode aluminum if used too strong or not rinsed thoroughly. I know I've had major problems if I ever had too strong a mixture in my washer for cleaning transmission cases. I misread the mixing instructions once and had a part come out looking like it had fur on it.

[stephen44]

Mothers Aluminum polish + lots of elbow grease may work

[stephen44]

also check out http://www.californiacustom.com/ourproducts.html

a while ago they gave everyone samples on the FFR forum - there products seem amazing when i tried it - the aluminum polish really got the corrosion off my bike.
Highly Recommended (I am not connected with them)

Mike is the head honcho there - he recommended

Purple Metal Polish – a metal polish appropriate for all polishable metal surfaces

Aluminum Deoxidizer – a pre-cleaner to use before Purple Metal Polish on more heavily oxidized (cloudy, milky, hazy) surfaces

hth

[hazelnut]

Purple Power also makes a cleaner that comes in a green bottle thats made just for aluminum. What ever you use is going to have to be a acid base to get the brown out of the aluminum, A polish isnt going to get the brown out if it. Your not the first person thats put purple power on aluminum and had a "oh sh!t" moment, Know a guy that sprayed it on everything under the hood of his 90s vette, ALL the aluminum turned brown and it looked like crap, He took the car somewhere and had it cleaned to bring back the aluminum, Looked like new when they finished.

[F100builder]

You can't polish the rough as-cast surface of an aluminum manifold unless it was polished to begin with. There might be a chemical that will counteract the Purple Power and return the brown spots to the natural aluminum color but I don't know what would do it unless it's been mentioned already. And yes...watch out with that HF acid! I've worked around the full strength stuff and it's nasty stuff for sure! If it were me, depending on just how bad it was and whether or not I needed to fix any leaky gaskets, I would just remove the manifold as I've already suggested and bead blast it back to brand new. But, that's my Care to share any pics? Just how much of it is brown?

[Ranchero50]

Muriatic acid from Lowes or HD. Low dose test it on a small section first. That's what HVAC techs use to clean fan coils. I wonder if purple power is an acid or base?

Jamie

[flyboy71]

Its made of Sodium Hydroxide (Drano) and Sodium Metasilicate which is a very strong base. Dont get the stuff in contact with muratic acid thats for sure.

http://www.clean-rite.com/msds/Purple%2 ... 202010.pdf

[papabug71]

Sodium Hydroxide is pure Lye. I hate yorking with that stuff. Very nasty. It burns me up.

Hate to hear about it evan_flatt69. I don't know of anything you could do other than take everything apart, repaint & refinish.

[evan_flatt69]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I'll add on some pics to this post as soon as I can. I've got some more Purple Power of course and was wondering if I dilute it down this time if that would clean it up but it seems like a bad idea since that's what messed it up in the first place. I've also got some Mothers Aluminum Polish, I'll see if that touches it. And I have Muratic Acid too. How much should i dilute it if I use it?

[sargentrs]

I'm following you closely on this one. I have an Edelbrock intake from a parts truck I was expecting to use on my rebuild. It needs cleanup, of course, and I've got a big jug of purple power I keep around for cleaning parts. Whew, that was close! Now I think I'll blast it, wipe it with lacquer thinner and paint it silver. Uhhh...thanks? Sorry about your troubles and good luck with it!

[1972hiboy]

wow I didnt even know that purple power did that to aluminum holy cow ...sorry to hear about that.