plenum chamber

[Rooster]

Im out playing with my new dremmel gun in order to spruce up under the bonnet bt not happy with the result so far. Using an engine cleaner spray along with autosol and a soft polishing head plus a wire brush head. Its gettiing fairly silverish but still has small dark spots in places. Its a million times better but not up to my standard. Any tips?
What else is it safe to tackle under the bonnet, apart from the obvious swirl pots etc?

[sapper]

Ive just had the plenum, swirl pot expansion tank and a few brackets powder coated by Track V Road, very reasonable price and turned around in 7 days. Chuffed to bits with the finished product. I started polishing the plenum but couldnt get it to the finish I was hoping for, hence powder coating. They also offer a professional polish for plenum chambers. May be worth a thought

[Rooster]

Hmm hadnt thought of that, I was keen on using hard graft. What sort of money are you talking here?

[sapper]

They quote per job, but you dont have to dig too deep. I paid under £130.

[V8ish]

Not the best pic from my camera phone, but I cleaned mine up on my V8s with carb cleaner, a wire brush, then wire wool. I actually took it off to do as I polished my rockers at the same time. It looks 100% better, I also painted the top with black hammerite then sanded it using a sanding block to get clean edges. I did plan on taking all the way down by sanding for a smooth finish but the rough casting pitts were deeper than I thought but it has been done on someones I have seen.

[Rooster]

OMG that looks awesome. I have all the rubber hoses encased in steel meshing etc (cept in red) but Im not sure about taking the plenum off, I'm wary of getting it wrong, just how hard is it?

[V8ish]

Its a bit of a fiddle but do-able. The main bonus is easy access to the rockers and you can clean the area up around the fuel rail and the "pits" by the injectors.

You have to dismantle the throttle linkage to remove it and simply unscrew the alan key bolts you see on my pic. Just take plenty of pics before hand. Make sure you also cover the trumpets when its off so no crap falls in.

Make sure you do not damage the base of the plenun when polishing, the result could be a not-so-snug fit and an air leak. Use Silicon sealant fron your factors to get a good seal when replaceing.

In short only take it off if you really need to (I had to as the previous owner painted mine and I couln't reach the underside whilst it was on the car)

Grant