getblown5.9

has anyone polished their aluminum intake horn? if so can you post pics, and tell me what you used to polish it.

im not looking for a mirror finish, more like a brushed aluminum finish.

while putting the head back together, i did this on the flat intake manifold cover, and it looks great in the brushed finish. i just used a "gasket cleaning" pad on a air die grinder to get all the real bad stuff off, then sat for an hour and sanded the cover with emery paper, and lastly hit it with some light mothers alum wheel polish and it came out great, just took forever

dodgeguy71

have not tried this....but sounds like a good idea. You don't happen to have an pics of the finished product do ya? I got a polishing wheel on my bench grinder in the shop for polishing stainless/aluminum...might have to give this a try

Tiger Rag

I've seen one done and then powder coated with an "anondized look" powder coat....pick your color. It looked awesome. I was told lots of hours went into the metal prep though. I media blasted mine and powder coated it in it's cast finish. The yellowed factory clear coat was bugging me. $25 to powder coat it. I did it cummins blue which matches the BD intercooler boot (but again you can pick your color). Nothing flashy but cleaned up the look some. I thought about polishing mine myself......but thought better of it.....I've got enough projects.

I'd say take a flap disk on your grinder to knock the pebble finish off and go smaller until you get to a buffing pad. There is a metal polish that is supposed to work great on it, just can't come up with the name right now.

97crewcab

Sander and a buffing wheel. Oh and time a couple hours.

bnold

WOW!! that looks awesome!!

MOAGGIE

Wow I agree that looks sharp. I am thinking of doing mine in red to go with the outside.

MedicShawn

Why not just powdercoat it to looked chromed then you only have to do it once.

Jambbii

I did mine a while ago. Not too bad of a job. I beleive I used some different scotchbrites on a rotary tool and then finished it with a kit from home depot. This is the only good pic I have because my engine compartment is currenty coverd in mud

dodgeguy71

Those look great! Hey Jambbii....you've got a small leak in your air conditioning system there at the accumulator!

Tiger Rag

I thought about doing mine with the chrome powder coat. Only thing is it would still have the cast pebble finish and it is not quite as shiny as real chrome. It is a good option though.

smoke_pedal

I bought mind from cummins. it was already chromed. The parts guy said that they discontinued it, and just put the chrome and gray part number into the same one. It was 63.00 and that was in southern california. You can still try to get one, I bought mine about a year ago, because I have a CA engine, and the EGR intake horn restricts down to about an inch hole, and it isn't very smooth about it.

B KIRK

I polished my Twin Ram intake, valve covers, and turbo housing.
Ground the lettering off, same as the turbo, and went from there.
Lots of steps, but came out pretty good.



Brad

getblown5.9

well havent got the proper tools yet to do the horn, but i did the valve cover by hand this weekend. i polished up the bare aluminim letters etc, then scuffed up the powder coating so paint would stick. then i shot it with 5 coats of high temp gloss black, and then untaped the bare aluminum and shot it with 3 coats of clear coat to protect the finish and keep it from getting nasty. its looks awesome and its nice and shiny/smooth, ill be able to wax it and keep the engine bay looking good.

if for some reason it ends up looking like crap from the heat, ill just sandblast it and polish it all, or buy one of the new powder coated pieces in "cummins" blue

getblown5.9

well here are some pieces ive done with the brushed aluminum look.

the intake manifold looks bad due to the lighting, but when you look at it up close its much much much nicer looking

JKM

How did you get so much room between your valve covers and your cowling? i can hardly get my valve covers out it is so tight...