The Perfectionist (engine detailing)

[RadMax]

So I got two short blocks (plus heads, jugs, etc) when I bought my Special, and it’s always been my intention to just “maintain” the engine that’s currently in my bike, and do a complete teardown and rebuild with one of my spares. That way I can eventually have a nice solid mill, good reliability, and a bit more power. And it really doesn’t hurt that I work at a race shop.

So I split the cases, took everything out of the lower case, gave it a good soak and a good scrub in the parts tank, it looks a million times better than it did, but it’s still pretty gnarly in all those little hard-to-reach pockets. It’s an XS. It’s an air-cooled engine, no fairing, and it’s got several decades of road grime built up on it. I know no one is ever going to see it, and it’s just going to get dirty again, but that’s not the point. I don’t have the heart to put it back together looking like shit. I’ve got everything: Parts washer, Brākleen, wire brushes, Dremel, Scotch-Brite, aircraft-spec metal polish, Mother’s, de-greaser… I want to try out some paint gun cleaning tools, or maybe some swabs and stuff for cleaning firearms? I’ll probably try some Dawn dish soap too. And I learned from an old Marine that they used to de-grease the trays in the mess with hot sauce and hyper-concentrated Lemon Kool-Aid. Hey, I tried it on other things, and it worked.

But here’s the thing: Is there anything I could use, like a solvent I could dip it in, or something I could spray on that’ll really cut the grease right off those hard-to-reach spots? I’ve heard about guys using milkstone for stuff like this, but I don’t know, it seems a bit sketchy. The guy I heard it from is a bit of a hack. I have a blast cabinet, but I’d rather not use it for this, and I don’t want anything that could leave any sort of residue or film in my engine.

Any suggestions?

 

[Jim]

and I don’t want anything that could leave any sort of residue or film in my engine.

You'll want to avoid the Dawn then. The soap will work it's way into the pores of the casting and can cause oil foaming when the engine heat releases it. Oil pumps don't work well with foam.
Your best bet would be to try a pressure washer. That usually gets into the little crevasses pretty good.

 

[RadMax]

Thanks for the tip! What about steam cleaning?

 

[Jim]

Thanks for the tip! What about steam cleaning?

Yes, a pressure steam cleaner would be the ideal solution.

 

[bosco659]

Pictures please.

 

[Mailman]

My method is , first for the initial degreasing, kerosene and plastic brushes and scrubbing pads. Engine cleaning brushes for all the internal passageways, also works good for between the fins and air passageways on the external parts of the motor. Harbor Freight makes an inexpensive set,

For detail cleaning and hard to reach spots on the exterior, household kitchen degreaser, like 409 or something like that. Using scrubbing pads, steel wool, and a Dremel with these brushes,


For me it was all elbow grease.


Some more photos here,

https://www.xs650.com/media/albums/see-through-top-end.3111/

 

[RadMax]

Just bought an arsenal of assorted brushes from Harbor Freight. They didn’t have any swabs, but I bought just about one of everything. Thankfully it’s Harbor Freight, so it was cheap.

 

[RadMax]

I DIDN’T SEE THAT SCREWDRIVER ONE!!!!!

That’s a badass lookin’ mill, mad props!

I also got a couple of the Dremel brass wheel/brushes for the tougher stuff, man those are a racket! There has to be like some off-brand company making them for $0.02 a piece and selling them in bulk somewhere on the interwebs, right?

I found these, and they’re pretty good:

https://www.amazon.com/AVAVIGOO-Pol...t=&hvlocphy=1025202&hvtargid=pla-787879078921

 

[5twins]

Yes, you can get quantity bags of the Dremel brushes cheap off eBay. Of course, they're Chinese knock-offs and not as good as real Dremel ones, but the price is right.

 

[Adamc]

Yes, you can get quantity bags of the Dremel brushes cheap off eBay. Of course, they're Chinese knock-offs and not as good as real Dremel ones, but the price is right.

5T is correct. The fleabag chinese ones are cheap; but you will use 4 of ‘em to one Dremel. Cheap ain’t always good.

 

[toglhot]

Why not get it vapor blasted? Alternatively bead blasted. Bead blasting gives a nice finish. If you want to apply paint garnet blasting gives a good surface on which to paint. In these pics, the carbs were bead blasted, cylinder head, rocker and barrel garnet blasted prior to painting. Bike was pretty grotty when I bought it, covered in grease and exposed areas like side covers, carbs, etc, badly oxidised'

 

[bosco659]

These are relatively inexpensive but like other offshore stuff, don’t last a long time. still great for cleaning and jobs like gasket residue removal.

 

[RadMax]

In all fairness, the Dremel-branded ones don’t last very long either. I have a blast cabinet at work, couple types of media too, but I’m a bit nervous about putting engine stuff in a blast cabinet.

If you want a good laugh, a guy I know was using a blaster to clean up the engine bay on his car, had both manifolds off, and ended up getting sand in his cylinders.

 

[RadMax]

On the subject of rockers and blasting though, how do you get the rockers out? I took off those Philips/JIS covers (like all JIS stuff, it was a bear), tapped out the sleeve with an 8mm socket, but how does the pin for the rocker come out?

 

[5twins]

You have to "pull" it. The end of the shaft has a threaded hole in it, 6mm I think. Sometimes an M6 bolt in a slide hammer will do it. If not then a long M6 bolt with a nut and washers on it. Thread the bolt into the shaft then tighten the nut down against the head and washers.

Honestly, I don't pull the rockers out of too many heads any more, usually no need to.

 

[Niels B]

vapor blasting is awesome + i use it on almost everything, change the media between parts that need to be painted (aluminum oxide) and parts that just need to be cleaned (glass beads). Only issue is if there are any oil channel they preferably should be run through an ultrasonic cleaner afterwards to ensure there is no residue left in vital areas. I use this vapor honer https://vaporhoningtechnologies.com/bench-top-vapor-hone-450-wet-blasting-equipment/
in the process of getting a large ultra sonic cleaner + think this one will be my choice as it's large enough to handle almost anything https://vaporblasterforsale.com/col...sound-cleaning-machine?variant=29860531765357