Amfab

They actually worked, I took some bass guitar strings, mostly E A and D and clipped off the ball end to fit in my cordless drill's chuck, then clipped the tip at the windings to get a sharp edge and then slightly bent the tip to get it to self center as much as possible. Ill get some pictures tomorrow on how I bent them. They act as a roto-rooter type snake with a tip that will scrape slowly and "drill" though the build up.

I used the cordless drill to spin them, slowly, as I fed them, slowly, up though the ports, pushing gently, as they sort of drilled though the carbon. It was slow going as they aren't a true drill.

I did the break-off-the-SAI-valve method to expose the 27mm nut, then took it off with a socket, then did the Berryman B-12 blow through and soak method.

Stuff came out 4 ports, but not too well.

I spent about a minute or two "drilling" with the bass string, and got the string up two of the ports about 12-16 inches, but the others would get stuck at about 3 and a half to 4 inches in.
I then blew through another batch of B-12 and got lots of flow on those two.

Aother 5 minutes on the third one and it was clear. It took maybe 20 minutes of alternately blowing in B-12 and drilling to get the 4th open. I was using the rubber plug strapped to the exhaust stud method to direct the spray/flow of B-12 to the cylinder I was working on, but I was only using about 40Lbs pressure (I was worried about the SAI manifold plugs).

The last two - closest to the front of the car were the hardest. On the 5th one I spent easily 30 minutes back and forth, drilling, flushing, drilling, flushing. My arms got really tired from holding and contstantly feeding the bass string in applying moderate pressure.

In looking at MikeJs excellent SAI pictures from his rebuild, I think that that bend in the flow is where most of the stuff accumulates. it seems that the string would get about 3-4 inches in and get stuck and thats where I would have to just sit and drill.

After about a good 15 minutes of drilling on the 5th one, black solvent began dripping and the bass string fed itself in another10 inches- Its like striking oil!
I got so excited. The last one I was too tired to do, so I soaked it with B-12 over night and continued in the morning. it was the worst, probably 45 minutes total with 20min of that laying under the car drilling. It finally came clear.

Once the clogs were penetrated I ran the string in and out reaming the passages. I then did a few more Berryman B-12 passes, then a half of a bottle of Techron.

A couple things to be careful of if you try this method, you are running the risk of the string breaking in the passage, so as soon as it gets stuck, back it out carefully. If you leave the strings close to full length they will coil up and wrap around the drill so you have time to stop the drill if the string gets stuck, and you wont over stress the string in the port enough to break it - BUT, the strings aren't designed to take too much twisting force, so they can break, I had about three strings break. You need to get a feel for it so you can tell when they break, but you can pull them out because there still is the winding wire, as long as you dont keep powering in with a broken core string. For this reason I used a lot of strings , probably seven or eight, to avoid breaking due to fatigue. They do get fatigued from this and will break.

I dont know if its the best way, but it seems to work a lot faster than the 3-4 day soak method, and once open I would imagine this reams them cleaner.

Oh Round-wound strings, forgot to mention that. Flat-wound wont roto-rotter as well.

Now for my question. How, without going the custom bent wrench or crowsfoot path, can I tighten the new SAI valve down. Would hand tightening be good enough since the valve is held in place buy the hose and clamp on the other side? How much pressure normally runs through this system? Would it leak through the treads if it was hand tightened?

Franklin229

Intesting solution-pics would be great. I take it you play bass?

Marlon

Andrew - totally cool! I play a fretless Fender Jazz bass in a 60's band. Is this SAI clogging a problem on 95's? I assume you were using a variabel speed drill?

Mike J

Great job Andrew! I often wondered what could be used to bore out those holes, especially with the bend as you mentioned.

Do you have a large set of channel locks pliers? You can use those to snug down the valve. I think just hand tight is a bit loose but it will work, you just don't want too much play since you have back pressure from the exhaust on the other side. You could also use some pipe-dope on the threads or even lock-tite. You are right, it won't unscrew, you just want to prevent leaks.

Next time I get to do a SAI flush (only done two so far) I will try your method.

Were you afraid that the string will break while imbedded in the engine?

Cheers,

Mike

Amfab

Don't fret Marlon you'll be jazzed to know that the 95s don't have the SAI issue. : )

For those not familiar with bass strings, they are layers of windings around a central core (to increase mass without increasing tension on the neck). One end has a little ring attached to it that holds it in the bridge (this ring you have to clip off to get it to fit in the drill chuck. At the end that goes around the tuning peg the wrapping machine wraps at a different pitch, so at the last few inches the windings are further apart (see pictures). Some string manufacturers will wrap nylon thread on the last few inches, you need the ones without this as you will lose the self-feeding benefit of this method.

Mike, you mean just grab the body of the valve with some channel locks? I was thinking about that, or a strap wrench, but I was worried about damaging the nut/valve connection which, thank god when trying to get it off, is sort of weak, but it did take me a 30 or 40 bends back and forth to break it free so, If I am careful not to over-torque I guess I should OK.

The pictures below show the strings. One pict has the tips bent in the way that seemed most effective. Cutting the strings further down didn't seem to cut as fast (other pict).

At first I wasn't sure if I was up against hard carbon or if I had just got stuck in the bend and was trying to drill the metal - because the string didn't move further in for so long. Thats why I bent the tip to try to get it to self center, in case it was coming up against that collar seen in MikeJs photos, but eventually it proved to be carbon I was cutting through. Laying under the car drilling for 5 minutes straght at a time you get visions of the drill just hitting that collar and spinning and you wonder if you are doing anything.

And heck yeah I was scared of breaking one off in there - Ill take a pict of the broken ones so you can see how they break.

The only other thing I could see working for this reaming is an old Targa top drive cable, Im sure everyone has some of those laying around

Dr. No

"Don't fret" I get it! Fretless bass. Interesting and creative solution

Mike J

I was just thinking that a channel lock should be able to allow you just to tighten down the valve just a bit...you certainly don't want it tight.

You can also go down to a cheap tool store, buy a 1 1/8" crowsfoot and with a bit of grinding work make a wrench that you can use again and again. I have done this twice (the second is when I needed it and it was loaned out...) and its not too much work.

Cheers,

MIke

Marlon

[QUOTE=Amfab;4518046]Don't fret Marlon you'll be jazzed to know that the 95s don't have the SAI issue. : )


LOL - that was a good one indeedi. Who's going to org our GC GB??!?!? Let's see - I would like to have...

brucec59

Cool! I'm a guitar player, but I can fake it on bass pretty good.

kkim

Bravo!!

993inNC

+2... and now a way to bring both hobbies together

Amfab

Ok now you got me started,
Underneath the car you really have to bend your neck around a lot to see the ports to stick the strings in, I felt like an explorer. This action can result in some aches the next day. Be sure to wear safety goggles to guard your eyes because the carbon scale flakes off as you pick at it. I thought I was a bit of a nut to try this, but the string tip seemed to cutaway the Wahl of carbon, which is a solid-body of hard crud. A large volume of crud came out. The rubber plug method works well, just pop them in the exhaust ports, push them in with your thumb, and I used a piece of welding rod to bridge the two studs and act as a truss to hold the plugs in. I think Kkim's bolt-on strap method probably works better. With the wires, the compressed air was popping the plugs out now and then as the pressure equalized. The plugs though are needed to increase the impedance, otherwise the solvent will go out the least restrictive passage. This direct injection method of getting the solvent in works well. I was jazzed I got the funk out, because I was fretting over the CEL.

The job doesnt take a lot of Precision, and I was pretty amped when solvent began to flow. Today I'll put in the valve and soon I will have the key in the ignition then all is left its to pickup my mess after my SAI tune up.

Note: As you have probably gathered from my intonation and tone, I am kidding with this last post and I hope no one is offendered by its relatively off-topic nature.

Marlon

QUOTE=brucec59;4519393]Cool! I'm a guitar player, but I can fake it on bass pretty good. [/QUOTE]


Cool! Actually, I am first a guitar player, bass second. The band already had guitars - they needed a bass!

"Can you play bass...?"

"Sure, gimme that thing..."[

woo - hoo!

I am a Tele nut - just luv that country twang thang'!