Im in the process of building a B18a1 head and couldnt find any input on sandblasting the bare head. any one have experence with this? what grade (correct term?) of sand/shot to use or is it stupid to risk not being able to clean the head well enough after?

thanks in advance

 

i've seen machine shops do it but what grade abresive i dont know of they used it to clean the ports anyways take a look at my thread

 

I wouldn't use abrasive media on it. Instead, have it hot-tanked.

 

ive done it to 4 heads two of them were for a chevy 350 the others were for a Ford small block.. the chevy ones were just dirty as all heck and in the process of cleaning them off we discovered a crack in one of them so that project was junked.
The ford heads however were a nice aluminum bit and went into the glass beader for cleaning... <--- that is not really recomended unless u plan on completly rebuilding the head... not to mention you will be spending litterally hours getting the leftover glass out of there because if any of that gets into a running engine it will not be preaty.
i spent a good amount of time blasting the thing with air.. then we hot tanked it and then when we though we were done we took a preasure washer to them.

 

took my z6 head to the machine shop and had it sandblasted and hot tanked. I haven't installed it, so I don't know the effects yet...but it sure did come out clean.