Cleaning heads

[breaffyaviation]

Any advise on cleaning hardened crud off the inside of my heads? I have the heads off and can soak them in a solvent but dont know what is safe to use without damaging the aluminum.

Thanks in advance,

Regards

Jude

[hooziewhatsit]

I got some good ideas here: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40245&highlight=head+clean

 

if I had to do it again... probably use a pocket knife (rounded tip) to carefully scrape the high points of the gasket material off.

 

Then I would use 800ish grit sandpaper with WD-40 on a plate of glass (or similar flat object) and use round motions(wax on/wax off ) to wear the gasket material off.

 

good luck

[breaffyaviation]

Thanks for the reply.

Im ok with the gasket material,its the baked on hard black stuff down inside the galleries Im after.When I was a kid,we used stuff cauled caustic soda,but cant find it anymore and anyway they were Iron heads and would stand a lot more abuse.BTw the big subject for discussion that time was if we could put a man on the moon.

Jude

[stephenw22]

When I did mine (just a few weeks ago now) I used a 1" putty knife with a soft blade to get the big stuff off, and then a green scotchbrite pad (synthetic steel wool) to get the small stuff off. It took a little while, but I was able to get the head surfaces looking pretty dang good.

 

I had a razor blade scraper handy just in case, but I never really needed it. The putty knife had a bit of a bevel built-in, and it worked just fine.

 

Take your time (if you can) and enjoy the process. It was nice to also take before-and-after photos, so I can really remember the difference.

[Ross]

If you don't mind paying someone, an engine shop will acid bath them for not too much. They come out looking brand new!

[Snowman]

For the head mating surfaces and the chambers, 3M makes special cleaning disks you can chuck into your drill. They are some sort of impregnated plastic/rubber stuff that works wonderfully. There are three different grades: Green for iron, yellow for aluminum, and I don't know what the white is for.

 

For cleaning the ports and stuff, remove the valves, hose the ports with brake cleaner, and use a small wire brush. It can't get everything out, but it's darn close.