Valve guides and vapour blast cleaning...

[Oz350Four]

I'm about ready to send my cases and sundry covers away for vapour blast cleaning and I'm wondering if I need to remove the valve guides or not..
I'm of the belief that vapour blasting is not abrasive (like sand, bead or soda blasting) and therefore wouldn't damage them..??
More than happy too be schooled on this one...

[Laverda Dave]

No need to remove them but tell your blaster not to blast the inside of the head as not only are the valve guides in there but so are the camshaft journals and you don't want to remove any material from those. The same goes for the rocker cover.

[royhall]

Vapour blasting is abrasive media in a high pressure water jet. That said it is far kinder to the metal than bead or sand blasting. For those parts soda blasting is best as it does not leave media behind to wreck your bearings. Make sure after vapour blasting that you thoroughly clean all the left behind media away or it will wreck your engine.