Motor cleaning help

I have my motor off the frame, any advice on how to clean it? Was gonna start with formula 49 with a brush, rinse with a hose and 0000 steel wool to polish up the metal.

 

Soda blast

 

Cleaning and paint removal are different things entirely. Unless the clear coat is damaged badly enough to need stripped for repainting, soda blasting is not called for.

A foaming engine cleaner and several sizes of soft nylon brushes will get the job done. I really like using Simple Green mixed at a 50% ratio (it is non-foaming, but does an excellent job and is biodegradable. Whatever you do stay away from pressure washers or steam cleaners as they will damage the gaskets.

 

I have had good luck using Foamy Engine Brite on three engines now. Plug EVERY hole where you don't want water. I used a variety of brushes and scotch-brite pads. It took a couple of rounds of cleaning and a little degreaser in a couple of spots, but it came out pretty clean. Toughest bits were what I suspect was road tar spray. FEB didn't get that. Bug and Tar remover did though. It took several sessions to get it clean enough for what I wanted to do. I would recommend against using any grade of steel wool as particles of it will embed in aluminum and those particles will rust. Warning: when it is clean, you can see what 30 years have done to it, besides getting it dirty. Then project creep sets in.

 

Jeebus Hamster, that is awesome..

 

Awesome isn't the word for it! WOW. Is that seriously the same engine with the same covers? My 85 XJ700 looks like your before pic and I was planning on soda blasting it in the next week or so and painting everything satin black except for the covers which were going to be gloss black. Will they seriously polish up that well? What did you use to get them that way? That engine may very well be my new inspiration.

 

You can get new YICS emblems for the engine covers ..... Len has them. That would finish the details nicely .

 

You look at his two pictures, you can spot enough difference to know there's more than JUST polishing there. But it still looks much nicer.

 

that looks awesome. I will try that. hope I can get my motor looking like that!

 

Even his frigginn' carb boots are shiny!!
JEALOUS!!

 

YamaMax, I don't want to hijack your thread but I figure if I respond to a couple things here, it might help with where you're headed, too.

Thanks for the props. Damn near everything I did there I learned somewhere on this site. There is not a single new part in the after picture, except some common hardware, fuel line and gaskets. Bit of a budget on the rebuild. But I got plenty of elbow grease. Washed the engine like I said a few posts back. ALL the chrome got scrubbed with wet aluminum foil. All the clear-coated covers came off, got the aircraft stripper, wet sand from 800 to 1500, buff and polish through black/red/white rouge. Everything got polished with a Mother's product (their Back to Black is awesome for the old plastic and rubber parts) and reinstalled with new gaskets. Even the bolts got all scrubbed up.

The jugs got cleaned extra well and masked off, sprayed black and fin edges filed to silver, I wish that I had just done the head too. The head cover got black paint and polished ribs. Lots of other stuff too but less relevant to the OP.

Thanks for the tip on the YICS Dave, but mine look OK. I just couldn't decide what glue to use on them and the spring weather turned nice and that was that. Still don't know what glue to use, but they will be on by spring.

 

you have inspired me! i dont have any special tools to work with, scotch brite, some brushes and engine foam I can handle.

 

A lot of tools can be improvised.

 

I like your ingenuity. My Dremel has become my Sonic Screwdriver.

 

Save your YICS emblems for some other covers.... If yours still "look OK", they're gonna "look crappy" when you reinstall them in those gorgeous covers. Those DESERVE new YICS emblems which will then then " look STUNNING"

 

so did you do all this painting in the frame?

i have my case completely apart and want to go black (and never come back).. i have an '81 550 maxim.. trying to disguise it as a midnight maxim..

i know from a previous post i will be buying some of that glad press and seal magic to mask everything off..

cleaning.. what works best?, i tried foamy engine degreaser, didn't work too well..

painting - vht engine paint and clearcoat.. this paint requires baking if the engine is apart.. can i do that in my oven? or does anyone think a few days out in the hot ass phoenix sun will do it any good?

 

or can i paint, let it dry to touch, then assemble engine, and let the running do the curing?