Manky head (non-thumper, sorry)...

[pigafetta]

Hi Folks

I trust you all had good fun at the annual knees-up. Wish I'd come too now, I've had a crap weekend.

What method would you recommend for cleaning up a head? The ports and back of the valves are full of really hard carbon crap. Is there a good solvent that'll help me get it off?

Suggestions so far are caustic soda, carb cleaner, brake cleaner, one of them ultrasonic wotsits...

Any advice would be gratefully recieved.

Thanks,
Dave

[Jez F]

I wouldn't use caustic soda as it will eat into any exposed Aluminium it comes into contact with, there is a product used in commercial kitchens which does remove carbon and not harm aluminium around, but it's been a while since I've seen or used any and I can't remember the name of it. Parrafin and a brass brush and an alloy or plastic scraper would be the safer option, unless you want to go in for vapour blasting, depends if you want to spend ages cleaning out oilways.
 Jez

[pigafetta]

I was doubtful about the caustic soda too. I'll try carb cleaner but I don't have much faith there. I suppose I'll just keep going with brushes and parafin. I'm really just trying to find an easy way out of a job that I don't want to do

I'm still open to suggestions...

Dave

[Jez F]

Hi, just googled 'carbon remover' and  came up with some stuff called 'Tableau Carbon Remover' claims to be safe on Aluminium, £6.49 a tin, might be worth a try, if it doesn't do the job you could use it on the oven!
 Jez

[guest27]

Have always used a wooden 9hard wood) scraper and / or a copper scraper to get carbon off, then some wet and dry.  Valves in a drill as a small lathe etc.  If the head will fit in a saucepan, boiling it up with some detergent can - repeat can - clean it up nice, or can leave detergent deposits.. lol - use automatic washing machine powder not hand wash or washing up liq as the latter have foaming agents and we do not want a load of boiling foam

Have heard of people cleaning heads in a dishwasher - but I would be a bit wary of the caustic dishwasher stuff and ally - mind the couple of bits of non-crucial ally I have put through the dishewasher have come out nice and clean and etched.  Mind would not remove carbon.

Have cleaned out the carbon from spannies by heating the carbon layer at one end to cherry red with a torch and then either feeding O2 or blasting air from a vacuum cleaner down it - set to blow.  Guess you could do similar with steel parts - burn the carbon with a torch - but it ay get too hot for the ally - mind it may also cause the valves etc to distort.

Usual "useful" Rog-the-Bodge ideas 

R

[guest18]

...Have cleaned out the carbon from spannies by heating the carbon layer at one end to cherry red with a torch and then either feeding O2 or blasting air from a vacuum cleaner down it - set to blow....
R

Boring safety note! Please be extremely careful using O2 near any heated objects! An O2 fire is not a good thing 
(and that from someone who has in the past been described as a "ru**y pyromaniac" in the workshop    )

[johnr]

ive always used a company near me called ribble technologys. they dip ally /steel, iron, basically any metal, into a chemical cleaner. this strips off any oil, grease, carbon, paint, chrome, annodizing, powdercoat. anything at all, and leaves bare metal. best bit is the price, under 30 quid for a complete engine, thats all the casings, head, barrel, crankcase, the lot.
this is a 4 cylinder suzuki engine before the process,



and this is the same engine after cleaning. remember, this only cost just under 30 quid! and turnround was under a week.

[themoudie]

Aye johnr,

Looks good, as long as there are no dimensional changes

One small worrying item in seen in the first 'clean' image.  

Red Hermitite managed to survive the process, in a few small discrete patches!

That stuff sticks!

Thanks for the lead, may save a bit of time with red diesel, followed by alloy wheel cleaner on a repeat as required process!

My regards to all the 'Old Scrubbers', Bill.

[themoudie]

After my last reply I did a little research! Sad eh!

Typed ribble technologies into Google and got their contact details. On the same page was this company in South Wales 'Euro Quality Stripping' and convenienlty they name a mystery ingredient they use in the 'chemical stripping' process.

This is the URL: http://www.euroqualitystripping.com/html/benzyl_alcohol.html

I shall leave it to yourselves to discuss and decide how you might wish to use the info.

My regards an 'Old Stripper', Bill.

[themoudie]

Supplier?

http://www.mistralni.co.uk/products.php?type=solvent

I'm all washed out

My regards, Bill.

[guest111]

the stuff you use to strip paint off of wood, nitromores,mcn article about the guy who used to build chris walkers engines used it to remove carbon.
Ray

[johnr]

no dimensional changes at all. this is a non abrasive process, they simply suspend the bits in a vat of the chemical and gently heat it up, then rinse it off when it comes out. ive had several engines done this way, and have taken several more in there for other people who wanted them doing but lived too far away(they posted the casings to me and i posted the cleaned up motors back.