RadMax
XS650 Addict
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?
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?