Hurricanes, the Venturi Effect, and Baking Soda

Well, Hurricane Isaac is coasting by, so Ian and I decided to return to cleaning the block. A week ago, we spent time at the local car wash armed with Simple Green and a stuff brush. We removed lots of crud from the block. We ended up with a pretty clean block. However, it wasn't as nice as we wanted.

I had read about soda blasting and thought this would be a good option for us. Soda (think Arm and Hammer Baking Soda) is a soft media that won't damage the block. However, i can be expensive to have done. I stumbled across this cool article:

http://www.aircooledtech.com/tools-on-the-cheap/soda_blaster/

and really wanted to give it a try. So, Ian and I made our pilgrimage to Harbor Freight (how awesome is that place) and bought a blaster attachment for my air compressor. That, connected with a tube stuck in a baking soda box, creates a Venturi effect and blasts the soda out of the gun. Cleaning power and learning physics all in one! Very sweet!

All in all, the experiment was pretty good. It did an ok job, got more gunk off, and was fun! However, the humidity in the air tank caused the tip to clog, and that was a pain in the butt. Plus I'm not sure my air tank was powerful enough. Maybe next time I'll. also invest in a bigger tank.