Polishing our heads

[Guts]

No not that one lol.

My motor has like surface cerosion on it I`m guessing its from the salt when getting imported. Whats the best way to clean it up and make it clean looking not so much polished althought I might want to oneday.

I have some stuff here called scotch brite which I have tried it cleans it up alot but still not fully, you can still see doll spots if you know what I mean.

 

[cribbj]

I'd sure like to know too, if there's an easy way.... I had the same problem with a 2JZ-GTE motor, that showed up with all the white fuzzy stuff on the aluminum. I tried acids, caustic, mag wheel cleaner, etc., etc. Since my project was a complete teardown/rebuild, I wound up glass beading all the aluminum and it came out looking brand new. Not cheap, fast or easy, but it worked fantastic. Then I wound up coating most of the exposed surfaces anyway, so it was for naught.

If you're going to tear your motor down anyway, glass beading works great; if not, I think you're SOL unless someone here has a secret solution. Plastic beads are supposed to work even better than glass, but they're horrendously expensive, hard to find, and I think, can be only used one time, whereas glass can be reused.

John

 

[Zuffen]

There's no simple solution to polishing alloy. It's all hard work and plenty of it.

If you just want to cover the discolouring you can paint with mag wheel paint.

The colour is acceptable the finish is acceptable (if you're carefull) and quite durable.

I'd lean toward a real good de-grease then masking the whole engine up and cleaning it with "Prepsol" or similar (automotive wax remover used by paintshops prior to painting) and then spray the whole thing. At least the colour would be consistent so you wouldn't notice the painted bits.

 

[Lambo]

Cleaning Corrosion

Hi Cribbj, I also wanted to clean the Aluminium on a model aircraft engine, a popular method was to Boil it up in Vineager and water, you may need a large pot to fit a 1uz lol, but im told Vineager will work, also removes the soap scum from inside dish washers.
Hope this helps
Regards Lambo

 

[Guts]

Dam I was hoping somebody had a magic solution for it.

I don`t want to paint it as I like the alloy look, might just wait and see what it looks like after being covered in mud and crap about 100 times and washed about 100 times. I just want to get it clean for the up coming mag feature as soon as its finished.

 

[twisty_toy94]

I thought about getting the glass beeding done on mine (Guts, yours looks really nice compared to mine). Only need the AFM, Throttle body and intake manifold done, then maybe colour code the cam covers to the same as the truck.

Does anyone know more about the glass beeding. Would the sensors etc, have to be removed, or can objects be masked up to avoid damage from the beads?

 

[Zuffen]

Twisty,

You can mask them but why? It's easy enough to take them out, the only problem is it's a hassle putting the engine in the blast booth.

You can't (or you're not supposed to) blast in the open.

 

[Guts]

lol and I thought yours looked better then mine by the pics.

mines bigger but hehehehehehehe

 

[krayn]

I made my own glass bead blaster. It brings up alloy like new. The beads are about $60 per 10kg bag I think. The beads dont seem to damage platic but they get into every little orifice and takes a while to clean them out of internal threads ect. you can easly mask up the bits you dont want to blast, but it must come off the motor to put in the cabinet.

 

[Steve Clarke]

Hope this helps guys
I stripped mine down leaving on the heads, sump and transmission
Made up some alloy plates for the intake and exhaust ports and other orifaces
Had the lot soda blasted and then coated it with Jotun/Imperite 300/303 clear epoxy
the bolt ons that weren't chromeable or polishable were painted with pressure pack
VHT "Nu Cast" in a colour called SP995 Cast Alluminium
The soda is water disolvable so no problems if it gets into the engine
I steam cleaned the lot down with tappet covers and sump off to make sure nothing got inside before painting
Steve

 

[Lambo]

Cleaning with Soda

Hi Steve, what type of Soda is used is it baking Soda or something else, i wonder if crushed rock salt would work in a small sand blaster.
Regards
Lambo

 

[Steve Clarke]

Hi lambo
Yes, it appeared and tasted like baking soda and acted like grit blast.
It is all that is permitted around the slipways in Tasmania for vessel blasting now
I wouldn't recommend salt as you would be impregnating the ally and steel work with salt (and then rust)
It certainly cleaned it up like new
I'll post some pics later
regards

 

[cribbj]

Hehehe, a lot of dentists in the US use soda blasting to clean their patients teeth. The dental assistant masks off the patient's face, puts on a mini blasting face shield, and goes to work with a little pencil tip blaster. Don't know what pressure they use to run the blaster, but it must be pretty low.

I had it done a few years ago and I won't say my teeth came out looking as good as freshly blasted aluminum, but they were certainly clean!

John