Cleaning Aluminum

Any good ideas on how to clean and shine a dull engine block (fins), polished up the side covers, looks pretty good, don't exactly know what to do with the engine block though, any ideas?

 

The block should be painted and your covers should be polished aluminum.

MN

 

hmm, looks like raw aluminum?

 

Get a good thick pipe cleaner (like one for a spray gun feed lines) and get in each and every fin with Simple Green or your favorite cleaning agent and scrub all the dirt out. After that is done, get a good aluminum or metal polish and scrub and buff between the fins with another oversized pipe cleaner and a terry cloth or lint-free cloth. Spend lots of time and do it right and you may get some decent results. If that doesn't work, clean all the polish out and repaint the engine.

I just repainted my engine and the results were pretty good. Make sure you use a High Temp ceramic engine paint and follow the directions. You should be able to get a silver or aluminum finish paint and that should work out pretty well. No matter how you look at it, it isn't a quick or easy process.

 

Ok I'll try that. I'm hoping to not have to remove the motor from the frame to paint it!

 

+1 to BluesBass advice only don't bother with Simple Green it works but not as good as Marine Clean.

 

Marine Clean - 5% potassium Hydroxide solution. Wonder what else is in that stuff? Probaly not much different than caustic soda. BUT DON"T PUT A STRONG SOLUTION OF THAT ON ALLOY! That's how we used to fill hydrogen balloons! Good fun! Heh Heh

 

Yes KOH or potassium hydroxide is in there and so is Ethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether, and some other non interesting surfacants. It is a caustic liquid but different from NaOH at least in it's basic ionization. You are right about it's reactivity with alloys. It should be diluted with hot water and allowed to sit on an alloy for a short time while the dirt is scrubbed. Then promptly rinsed. It is water soluble though so no need to neutralize it-just rinse. I haven't found anything that removes stuck on gunk better you just have to use common sense and understand the process.

 

Thanks for that....sounds like goggles on for that one!

 

so i need to clean the aluminum with some type of degreaser first, let dry, then polish with a metal/aluminum polish?

 

yep.

 

thanks.

 

Not everyone agrees with this, but I think that brushed aluminum on these bikes looks great. Use a metal brush in a grinder or drill.

Don't do this on the "soft" aluminum pieces, it will gouge them. The engine block qualifies as soft, I am pretty sure. The hard ones look great brushed, but take care 1. not to use too low of a grit of brush (brass better than steel, etc.), and 2. don't press too aggressively, or you can gouge the harder stuff too.

Looks great on the forks, covers, etc.

EDIT: This is assuming that by dull you mean the aluminum is dull or the clear coat is yellowing, not that it's just dirty.