MK7 Walnut Shell blasting adapter review

[805mk7gti]

Hey guys, doing a quick review on the walnut shell blasting adapter I bought. I borrowed a walnut shell Blaster that's actually for the BMW dealers from a friend, picked up a cheap 1.5hp compressor from Harbor Freight, some fine grit walnuts shells also from Harbor Freight and my Shop-Vac along with this adapter to successfully clean my intake valves.

Once you have the intake manifold off the whole process probably took me an hour at the most having never done something like this. I did have some picks I used to scrape off the really hard to remove built up carbon. Overall very happy with how they came out! I included both some before and after pictures.

I'm also replacing my injectors so need a few more parts before I get the car back together, will report back once I do.

Car has 79k miles and is FBO with IS38 and ran meth since around 30k miles.

Here's a link to wear I purchased the Walnut blasting adapter: http://www.bimmerhelp.info/

 

[gti9251]

Nice. How many miles?

 

[805mk7gti]

Nice. How many miles?

Forgot to add that to my first post but will do now, 79k miles.

 

[Xdpker]

Does the adaptor seal pretty well or does walnut still fly around? 3d printed correct?

 

[805mk7gti]

Does the adaptor seal pretty well or does walnut still fly around? 3d printed correct?

It sealed great! No walnut shells flying anywhere. Yes it definitely 3d printed.

 

[cbr600rr]

Wow! Thanks for sharing dude! I am sure there are tons of us who will appreciate seeing this. (Cheers)

Can you share pics of your tools for the job? I am curious how the shop vac worked it's way into this process. Just for clean up I imagine,,,,, but what did you use? And for what portion of the job?

 

[805mk7gti]

Wow! Thanks for sharing dude! I am sure there are tons of us who will appreciate seeing this. (Cheers)

Can you share pics of your tools for the job? I am curious how the shop vac worked it's way into this process. Just for clean up I imagine,,,,, but what did you use? And for what portion of the job?

I'm including a YouTube link that can give you a visual about the process. But basically the vacuum cleaner hooks up to that adapter (I just used some tape because my shop vac hose was much larger diameter than the adapter) and then there's a small hole in the adapter for the Walnut shell blasting wand so the vacuum cleaner sucks up the Walnut shells as you're blasting the intake valves.

https://youtu.be/ONp6gQXpyKU

 

[ErBall]

I did this as well, with the same 3d printed port adapter.

Anyone who doesn't have access to the BMW pressurized media blaster, or a blaster that is pressurized, don't try to do this with a smaller compressor. I had a 20 gallon one, and a gravity feed blaster, and it took about 1.5 hours a port. Between waiting on the compressor to refill, and working with the damn gravity feed Harbor Freight blaster, i'd recommend either renting or borrowing the correct equipment.

It's also worth noting how difficult hte HPFP to Fuel rail line is to remove. It's a bastard to say the least. I ended up using a crowfoot to get it off/on, but it took some work and a few swear words to make it work.

 

[The Fed]

Nice job. I guess the buildup isn't too bad for 80K miles.

Were you getting rough idling, hard starting, or notice a decrease in power? Or should I say did you notice an increase in power after cleaning?

 

[Hans]

Thanks for sharing this info!

 

[805mk7gti]

I did this as well, with the same 3d printed port adapter.

Anyone who doesn't have access to the BMW pressurized media blaster, or a blaster that is pressurized, don't try to do this with a smaller compressor. I had a 20 gallon one, and a gravity feed blaster, and it took about 1.5 hours a port. Between waiting on the compressor to refill, and working with the damn gravity feed Harbor Freight blaster, i'd recommend either renting or borrowing the correct equipment.

It's also worth noting how difficult hte HPFP to Fuel rail line is to remove. It's a bastard to say the least. I ended up using a crowfoot to get it off/on, but it took some work and a few swear words to make it work.

Hey that's awesome you used the same adapter! Did you happen to take any before and after photos. I'm curious to see how bad your carbon build up was compared to mine.

Harbor Freight sells this blaster for $60 and works just as good as the one I borrowed. A friend used that one to clean the valves on my 135 a few years ago. If I wasn't able to borrow the BMW blaster I would have bought that one.

I also struggled with removing the metal line going from the HPFP to the fuel rail. After trying for maybe 5 minutes I gave up and just removed the turbo outlet pipe that goes from turbo to intercooler. Once that was out I could get a wrench on it. Mine may have been easier to remove since I'm running the Nuespeed discharge pipe kit and it's two pieces, and I believe the stock pipe is one big piece.

Also included the compressor I used. It kept up fine with the job.

 

[805mk7gti]

Nice job. I guess the buildup isn't too bad for 80K miles.

Were you getting rough idling, hard starting, or notice a decrease in power? Or should I say did you notice an increase in power after cleaning?

I was definitely having a little rough idle at cold start. I'm also chasing down some misfires on cylinders 1 and 2. I had already replaced the coil packs and the spark plugs so my next guess was my fuel injectors which I am replacing.

Since I already had the intake manifold off, and had 79,000 miles I decided to clean the intake valves as well. Haven't got the car fully back together yet and when I do I will report back if I notice any Improvement in power.

 

[teemmy]

I was definitely having a little rough idle at cold start. I'm also chasing down some misfires on cylinders 1 and 2. I had already replaced the coil packs and the spark plugs so my next guess was my fuel injectors which I am replacing.

Since I already had the intake manifold off, and had 79,000 miles I decided to clean the intake valves as well. Haven't got the car fully back together yet and when I do I will report back if I notice any Improvement in power.

Thanks for sharing and the photos. The back of your valves actually don't look to bad, but the manifold definitely looks quite grimey

 

[7umberjackZac]

most difficult parts of this tear down are the oddly placed T25 bolts, fuel line compression nut, and the triple square bolt on the support arm under the throttle body. All challenging to reach.

I have time over the next day, I'll see how much I write up from when I did it.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[805mk7gti]

most difficult parts of this tear down are the oddly placed T25 bolts, fuel line compression nut, and the triple square bolt on the support arm under the throttle body. All challenging to reach.

I have time over the next day, I'll see how much I write up from when I did it.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Agreed on all points, I actually didn't have an M10 triple square for the support arm and was able to use a large torx socket instead. Just made sure to go slow and not strip the bolt.