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I got a motor that was in great shape it was never touched inside and it only had about 60,000 miles. I thought is would be a great spare motor but it was covered in grease so I sent it to my local engine shop (not a vw guy) to get cleaned in his hot tank and jet washer. he aparently left the case in the hot tank for 2 days that he said is an epa aproved wash. he only uses hot water and alumibrite. when the case came out it weighed about 10 pounds less than when it went in. that would be great but it made the case look like it was made of coral reef. the alumibrite ate through the case and made most of the bearing areas look like swiss cheese. I tried to save my time and had it done but I should have just bought 5 cans of break-clean and done it myself

Guess I would be knocking on his door for some $$$$ to replace the case.

Dietmar

Case isn't aluminum! It's magnesium. Caught one on fire years ago.

They used to feed a VW case to the bonfire at the evening partys at Road Atlanta years ago. It is a bit strange to see a very weird green fire and people wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night.

Jim Vaseff

that is what this case is destined for a big bonfire

The AS41 VW case. (What most are probably using) is Mag alloy AS41 (4% aluminum and 1% Silicon) thus AS41.
Lots of acids will destroy it fast. Alumibrite is up to 10% Phosphoric and 10% Hydrofluoric acid. It will eat up a case pretty fast. It can be used at much longer periods with Aluminum cases. If you put Alumibrite on a mag alloy case, it will often smoke and sometimes even flash flame.

There are much better ways to clean a Mag case.

We just pulled a water pump out of a March Formula 2 car. It was magnesium and about 50% swiss cheese!!

bumb

flat tappet wrote:We just pulled a water pump out of a March Formula 2 car. It was magnesium and about 50% swiss cheese!!

Common with that engine !
Which is why they use a special coolant.

SR Racing wrote:The AS41 VW case. (What most are probably using) is Mag alloy AS41 (4% aluminum and 1% Silicon) thus AS41.
Lots of acids will destroy it fast. Alumibrite is up to 10% Phosphoric and 10% Hydrofluoric acid. It will eat up a case pretty fast. It can be used at much longer periods with Aluminum cases. If you put Alumibrite on a mag alloy case, it will often smoke and sometimes even flash flame.

There are much better ways to clean a Mag case.

Jim,
Are you saying that Mag makes up the balance (95%)? I had nothing to base it on, but I was guessing that it was either 41% or 59% Mag. and the balance Al. What you say makes sense when I saw the weight difference of the AL case. Sure is exciting stuff. I had some light off on the B'port when I was skinning the last .001 cut off of the cyl. seats.
Teaches ya to keep the kitty litter near by! Thanks.