Working on the rally FX, got the head back all shiny and better than new. Had the machine shop clean the intake too, but everything else I’m doing myself. In one of many wanderings in the web, I came across a posting on a homebrew soda blasting rig. 
Soda is sand/media blasting using baking soda/sodium bicarbonate as the media. It’s the latest rage in the Eastwood catalog, touted for its gentle cleaning and easy cleanup. But instead of shelling out the hundreds of dollars to order one, here is what I tried out. Go to City Mill, buy $3 worth of 1/2″ vinyl hose, goto Safeway and buy about $3 of baking soda. Take hose, cut a slit about 2 inches from end just big enough that tip of airgun will fit in. Insert tip in slit toward the short end of hose, tape. Stick other end of hose in box of baking soda. I got the deluxe kit here and grabbed the cardboard box my Toyota order came in the mail in, and a nice thick plastic bag that happened to be in it too. So here you see it, the soda blaster and blast cabinet, for $6! Too bad I didn’t have any of that Wacky Willy’s freebie hose anymore or it would have been cheaper!
So does it work? The technology and build sophistication here is on par with the Clarence El Marko + CO2 inflater cartirdge spray paint, but yes it works. It’s not very efficient, feed of the soda is inconsistent, but it works good enough to get that greasy grime off instake parts. It doesn’t work so well on removing stuck on gaskets. Here’s abefore and after of the TVIS intake butterflies.
That’s pretty dang kewl Rootster!
What happens when all the baking soda bits get in the itty bitty ports in the carb though? They just dissolve out?
Yup, you rinse it in water, all kreen!
Dust mask is advised, if you neglect to put it on and start blasting, you’ll find yourself sneezing and dribbling snot from the irritation. Beyond that it’s not harmful though.