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cleaning carbon of pistons
femster87 - 16/10/10 at 01:53 PM

as above? what have people been using?


RichardK - 16/10/10 at 02:21 PM

I gently used a 2p coin with one side flatted off on the grinding wheel, will probably get blasted for this as it may be the worst possible thing to use

Cheers

Rich


Strontium Dog - 16/10/10 at 02:48 PM

Nothing wrong with Richards technique. A scraper will do with the corners rounded and no burrs on it, just don't gouge the soft alloy piston. A broken piston ring is ideal for leaning up the ring grooves but again, make sure you don't score the piston. Use the unbroken end of the ring of course!


rusty nuts - 16/10/10 at 04:36 PM

Gasket stripper will soften the carbon and make it a lot easier to remove


IanBrace - 16/10/10 at 07:20 PM

Soak it in vinegar.... softens it up a treat...


myke pocock - 16/10/10 at 07:44 PM

Someone once suggested to use spray on oven cleaner. Never tried it myself so dont know if it works. Will probably get a bollocking for suggesting it on here though!


martyn_16v - 16/10/10 at 07:46 PM

If the engine is still in one piece, I have a mate who swears by letting the engine 'sip' a little water through a vac line to 'steam clean' the piston crowns. Run a long bit of vac hose into a jar of water, but don't stick the end of the hose right in the water and let it all get sucked straight down, hold the end of the hose close enough to the water for it to slurp it up a tiny bit at a time. Apparently. He insists that he's stripped down engines he's done this with and they're shiny as a shiny thing.

Never got around to trying it myself...


indykid - 16/10/10 at 08:02 PM

quote:
Originally posted by martyn_16v
If the engine is still in one piece, I have a mate who swears by letting the engine 'sip' a little water through a vac line to 'steam clean' the piston crowns. Apparently. He insists that he's stripped down engines he's done this with and they're shiny as a shiny thing.

Never got around to trying it myself...

i've seen piston crowns from a few forced induction cars that have run water/methanol injection and the piston crowns are near spotless, so there may well be some truth in it


MikeR - 16/10/10 at 08:13 PM

heard this before on an american site. The issue is making sure you don't let the water flow into the inlet. An idea was to use a water mist spray bottle and spray water into the inlet tube.


ashg - 17/10/10 at 09:27 AM

oven cleaner gets my vote brings ali up a treat.