Thread: how to keep Magnesium form oxidizing

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When I installed the blower I polished the front cover and bearing plate. Now the bearing plate has turned a very dull grey. I didn't know magnesium would do that or I wouldn't have bought it. The aluminum front cover still looks great. How do I keep the polish looking good. I don't want to take it apart every year to repolish the stupid thing.
John

That's part of the "charm" of magnesium, it wants to go back to it's original form.
If you want it to be the bright polished look you're going to have to keep polishing (or switch to aluminum and sell the mag piece to some other guy). Halibrand used to coat their wheels with a golden colored product years ago, but that wouldn't give you a bright finish. I don't know of anyone having clear powder coat applied, you might check with a coater to see if they have any experience doing magnesium successfully.

After polishing the parts, the stuff you use to shine it with is corrissive, so the dull returns quickly
After shining it up you can get a jeweler rouge clothe and wipe it to remove the polish material and the shine will last longer---but you will still need to keep after it

We ran a lot of Mag on our dragsters and funny cars, and it took some work to keep it up but we felt the performance gain from the weight savings was worth the effort needed to shine it

Jerry

I got real mag wheels and it returned to a dull grey. Too much trouble to keep polished.

i have coated many mag wheels i did them for race use they were dip in dow 7 dichromate black die or comes in gold to helps make paint stick or as is to keep it going gray . i shot the rim drops with ppg dau 75 clear and did some that were not dip the mag wants to turn back to it original form like said i have painted 100 s of them i did all the indy lite rims and others that were old race car rims i shot with concept to .i have seen a all mag sbc that was power coated. i have painted alot of mag i did the hals for the ac corba and some old english race cars rims brabham. valve cover oil pans and parts for a glass company

Bob, Jerry,Pat,
Thanks for the info. I have the blower apart now and will polish the plate and try clear coating it. I am also looking for an aluminum bearing plate just in case.
Thanks,
John

Blowers are pretty intensive towards being put together just exactly rire as to timing and clearance issues---if you haven't done a lot of them you might be better off trading the mag blower for an aluminum one. As a side note-we always ran an aluminum blower ( except once) because of the expansion issues with heat and lost of tolerances

Jerry

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

Blowers are pretty intensive towards being put together just exactly rire as to timing and clearance issues---if you haven't done a lot of them you might be better off trading the mag blower for an aluminum one. As a side note-we always ran an aluminum blower ( except once) because of the expansion issues with heat and lost of tolerances

Jerry

Jerry, thanks for the advice. The only part of the assembly that is magnesium is the front bearing plate so it is no big deal. What do you think of a gutted blower and one carb. Garlits sells that type of a setup and it seems to be popular. Still have the looks and enjoy the gas mileage increase. It is really getting to be a sad situation to have to look for a gas station every 50 miles for fear of running out and then spending $100+ on gas every time you go cruising or to a show. A buddy of mine was running a blown small block in his Willys and over the winter had JR Thompson build him a blown 572. I don't think he will get out much this summer. Yeah I know about the whole "POSER" concept of the 70's. And I know real hotrodders says that we will find the money to run our toys, but there is the reality of $4+ gas to deal with too. John

I think that a case with just one rotor would work well for stirring the mixture--if only the front plate is mag then by all means get rid of it--if you aren't running twin rotors there isn't any timing issue and you can easily clearance the rotor to case by restting the dowel pins