Im trying to get the excessive carbon buildup on my rotors off to no avail.

Is there any relativly easy way to do it?

 

I have the engine apart and am cleaning the rotors is what I mean.

I want them bronze again before I put them back in, not black :P

Atf doesnt do much, surprisingly.

 

my what i know... brake cleaner cleans everything and anything...

(if this screws up your rotors/parts) i never mentioned brake cleaner.

So take all advice with a grain of salt, unless RETED or scott89T2 or banzaitoyota chims in ... and scathcart, NZ convert, or hailers.

 

buy 2 gallons of parts cleaner and leave the rotors in for 2 days in a bucket.

 

i would go with a parts cleaner and soak if your just wanting to display your rotors engine degreaser always does the job in 2 seconds

 

Thats just the thing. Ive soaked one of the rotors for 2 weeks + tried engine degreaser and a brass brush.. still wont come off!

Im running out of ideas

 

88SE,
You need to get a fine wire brush wheel attachment for your drill and use it to remove the caked on crap. Brass will work but I used a steel one. Do it only where the carbon is and keep spraying carb cleaner while you are at it. Took me just 10 min each after I had already soaked it in paint thinner.

 

lacquer thinneer is metal's best friend

~ut

 

Yeah, I do this weekly, and I use a wire brush on a die grinder to clean all the engine parts/mating surfaces. I claen the face and sides of the rotors down to bare metal again, then clean the matic surfaces on each rotor housing adn iron plate, after I have already cleaned and painted the external surfaces. For this cleanup, I use aircraft remover/stripper, let it soak for 10 minutes, then pressure wash it off, this cleans the irons and housings up really nice, gets them ready for paint. Then I use the wire brush to remove any paint overspray and the buildup on the mating surfaces.

IF you dont have a high rpm wire brush your not going to get anywhere.

 

Just curious ..

I have another rotor that i tried to clean out of another engine and after brushing maybe a bit too hard it started to turn silver instead of bronze .. is that normal or bad?

 

Normal, it wont hurt anything, in my experience, I have built over 20 engines now.

 

What's with the bronze anyway.. some kind of coating?

 

I guess so,. they did some odd stuff. I was told that they used to be coated with teflon as well, but I can find no evidence of this on any used rotors I have, which exceeds about 50. either a) this is bullshit, or b) it has burned off or worn off, much liek the bronze coating may have.

I think the bronze youre referring to is actually just discoloration from heat cycling and engine duty for thousands of miles. I believe, when they are new, they are silver/gray, though I have never gotten any new ones.

in any case, get them as clean as you possibly can. spare no cleaner or method. Clean out all the grooves and lubricate everything during reassembly, make it move nice adn freely, and youll have a good strong engine. keep it CLEAN!

 

Sweet. Ill have to try the high speed wire brush.

I about had a heartattack when my rotor started turning silver, thought I killed it

I just always thought they were bronze cuz pictures I see they always are. I thought the things were brass until one of my spares started to rust

 

nah just plain old shitty looking, youre not gonna hurt them, but be CAREFUL in handling them, they are SOFT as brass on teh edges where apex adn corner seals go.

 

What about this crap the manual says about "bieng careful not to damage the soft coating on the side surfaces" ... is it safe to grind away at the whole rotor?

 

yup. teh soft coating the FSM talks about is either a) carbon, or b) the teflon earlier mentioned which is nowhere to be found now.

 

We use carb cleaner *in the gallon can*, not the stuff in the spray can.&nbsp Someone mentioned "parts cleaner", and that should be the same stuff.&nbsp Be VERY careful with this stuff, as it'll eat your skin!

We normally dump the rotors overnight in a small can filled with this stuff, the carbon literally falls off by the next day.



-Ted