Richard S

Engine is out of car and on a stand, I'm at the point of cleaning the engine block and getting ready to re-assemble things. What should I use to clean off 26 years of caked and baked on oil and grime? I don't need it 100% spotless, just clean, so it won't have that burned oil smell and won't get my hands dirty in the future. I've pressure washed it, and used Simple Green, as well as BrakeCleen. But what will break loose the caked on oil? Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks, Rich.

Vilhuer

If you have everything removed from it, take it to machine shop for wash in purpose build machine. Couple wash cycles and turning block into different position in between should take care of it all. And only costs few $ and saves lot of time.

Richard S

Erkka, not a complete teardown of the engine, just removed the cam-towers and heads. No plans to rebuild the engine, just repair a leak and re-seal the engine, so I didn't plan to totally dis-assemble it. Otherwise, you are right, a wash in a tank would do the trick.

Rich

Big Dave

Mineral spirits. In my experience, its was exponentially better at cleaning grime. Spray it on, scrub with toothbrush, rinse, repeat. Make sure you put newspapers or something to cover the floor. It'll get messy.

Richard S

Dave, WOW! What a difference...mine is slightly less greasy than yours to start, I'd be more than happy with those results.

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Rich.

airosey

I just used some engine degreaser (believe it was 'engine bright') let it soak for 15 mins, then used a pressure washer. Everything blasted right off and looks good as new. Simple Green just can't cut off the really thick stuff. Just my 2 cents.

BC

What about stuff like the carbon build up in the combustion chamber?

Big Dave

Mineral spirits worked on that, too. Just be sure you get ALL of the debris out to avoid scratching the cylinder walls. My piston heads had serious deposits on them...

Compare this picture to the one in my first post.

BC

When you say mineral spirits are you talking about paint thinner? I always get confused in that isle at Home Depot. Maybe its the fumes.

My pistons are out of the block, and my block is clean like the clean pic because it was at a machine shop. The head chambers and exhaust chambers are my concern.

dr bob

Brendan--

If the heads are disassembled, valves out etc, then they can go to the machine shop for cleaning just like the block. Your valves will need to get some wire-brush treatment to get the exhaust crap out of the tulip area, aftyre which they go in the chem tank with the head.

Many moons ago, in my 911 period, I filled a trash barrel with enough 50-50 hot water and mr clean to cover the case halves and such in the bottom. You can buy a mr clean equivalent by the gallon at Smart & Final, disguised as degreaser. Anyway, the concentration can be offsset with time, within reason. Got a few days? A weaker mixture will do the job. Parts come out bright, If you leave them in too long though, they start to turn a dark gray fo some reason; Might be the low pH of the mixture, so keep an eye on your parts for a while and don't forget them.

BC

Or in my case, I was overzealous with putting all the bolts from a previous tearodown in parts degreaser. About two weeks later I remembered. The bolts were, um, in not too good of shape.

tv

Its odd but the main block casting shines up very well and relatively easy but the crank cradle and the heads and cam covers stay dull and oxidized.

The difference can be seen on Daves pix above. Why?? Different alloy??

I have gone to a plastic bristle wheel and fine sandpaper.

edit by me

Daniel Dudley

Marine clean, by POR 15 will clean anything. I soaked the inside of a gas tank with mineral spirits and laquer thinner or days with no results - marine clean made it look brand new. It is used to prep cast iron blocks for painting, as it cleans right into the metal pores.

DFWX

Acetone will cut through about anything - it is what is used for fiberglass work.
BUT BEWARE...
It will destroy any paint.
It has a VERY fast evaporation rate and the fumes are extremely harmful.
You should NOT breathe it or get it on your skin - it is very vicious stuff.

I deal quite about with Acetone and even use it in fuel (1 ounce per gallon) - but I would likely not use it to clean up a motor unless you are going to wear a respirator AND have fans running to keep the fumes away from you.

Again, it will evaporate VERY, VERY fast - so you have rapid fume build up.

(It also tends to destroy rubber and numerous metals and plastics...)

Mark
DFWX / GOE

BC

You are doing the one ounce thing to increase gas mileage on your cars? Is it working? I saw that website.