Hi, Im very familiar with cyl engine rebuilds and ways to clean them. A friend of mine told me not to hot tank ANY of the parts on the 13b. What can I use to clean my engine? Can I hot tank my steel and cast iron parts? What methods do you guys use? Thanks

 

We primarily use an industrial hot water parts washer and then follow-up with a variety of methods suited to the parts in question. Hot water is very effective and safe. At home, you can just go buy an old dishwasher to get similar results (don't do it in your regular dishwasher!). We don't recommend any harsh chemicals except for spot cleaning...say, a shot of carb cleaner on a rag to wipe off some stuborn carbon, for example.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. The thing is, I have access to a hot tank, and I was recently given some old s4 t2 side plates with some rust. If hot tank is not advised, I was also thinking of using a Soda blaster. There is a parts washer there too, and a jet clean we use for alluminum parts. Im going to try to go to my old school's auto shop and use the equipment.

 

I like the old dishwasher idea.

-Ben

 

I mightas well. Its not like I wash my hands before I eat. Mmmmmm greasey petroleum products and crispy carbon

 

Open your text books to grade 11 physics.
The story goes something like this: you take a coat hanger... that becomes your electrode (a hunk of steel, copper rod will do). you get a plastic pail or tub filled with water/baking soda solution. Toss in the metal part you want to clean so its completely in the solution. then using a trickle battery charger you connect the the negative to the coat hanger and the positive lead to the part (I think... it might be the other way around). Anyways you let it go for a 12 to 24 hours and it will clean your parts using electrolysis.
Try to clean a part thats really rusty and in 24hrs there might not be a part left to clean as it eats away at the rust. The theory to it all is that the (+) ions move to the (-) electrode. Its kinda like how a battery works, If you leave a charger on too long it will eat away at the plates... cleaning the acid ions off of the plates and the electrolyte solution becomes more acidic. Thats why you can check a battery's condition with a hydrometer. If the electrolyte solution is non acidic then that means that your acid ions are stuck to the plates and your solution is basically water. Hence why a battery freezes/cracks when its cold and not charged.

This should work on most metals, but if memory serves me right the electrode and the part being cleaned should be of dis-similar metals.

 

cool, post of some picks of your homemade cleaner when you do it. Sounds interesting

 

i saw the elctrolysis cleaner stuff on a show in spike tv. show was about trucks,, but metal is metal.

 

I think I'm going to rig up an old dishwasher with some purple power cleaner. that stuff is awesome and inside a dishwasher it should be unbeatable

tom

 

i tried out the electrolysis on a old DOA rotor i had laying around it worked better then i thought it would.. well here is the thread and pics that i posted https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generation-specific-1979-1985-18/how-clean-parts-pics-674492/

on a side note if you read the links in my thread.. this should not be done on housing or anything plated

cheers PaTricK