Head & Cylinders need cleaning? read on

[feelergaugephil]

If your aluminum head/cylinders are looking the worst, Go to Walmart, and get "OFF, oven cleaner" The spray kind, ENGINE COLD, spray it on, maybe even rub it in a bit with a paintbrush, it will go frothy, that means its working, wait about 2-3 mins and simply wash off with water....

 

[Hoomgar]

I can vouch for that Phil, I have done it and it works.

 

[bwringer]

Is that stuff safe for paint, plastic, rubber, etc.? Would one try this on an assembled motorcycle or is this just something you might do with parts?

What kind of finish do you end up with? Should I neutralize the Easy Off with something afterwards? Am I going to need a HazMat suit?

You can see I have a burning curiosity about this.

My bike's engine is incredibly nasty-looking, so anything short of dissolving the whole thing would be an improvement.

 

[UncleMike]

Yeah, just want to make sure this isn't gonna eat away anything important, ya know?

 

[beby99]

Does'nt this turn your aluminum a dark/grey color??

 

[Hoomgar]

It washed mine clean but I was agressive in my rinsing as I always am.

I had an area on the back of my engine where battery acid made a mess of it when the overflow tube fell off and I didn't know it. Then it got covered with goo and the whole area was next to impossible to get clean with anything I tried. I used oven cleaner (forget which brand, just something cheap) and I was carefull to wrap my frame and all other parts I didn't want overspray on first then I gobbed her up and let it soak about 45 minutes. Then I power rinsed it which means hooking my garden hose up to the hot water spigot at the washing machine and rinsing her down. I then took off all the wraps and rinsed some more. Then I got in there and towel dried. It did a great job and no damage to anything.

I would suspect it could be dangerous if you are not as paranoid about doing things as I am. I withdraw my statement about it being a good idea and will only state that it worked good for me the way I did it.

I would think small quantities sprayed into a bowl and toothbrushed on like Phil said would be much safer.

There are reviews on the board here that report much safer products made for this purpose and some of the guys on here say they work great.

Here is the one I am going to try next as we didn't bead blast the lower half of my engine :roll:

Not sure why that was missed :x


Check this thread out:
http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/viewtopic.php?t=27307

 

[Nerobro]

Taht stuff eats aluminum IIRC.. so don't do it every week.

 

[Anonymous]

I posted a question in the S100 Engine Brightener thread...about my own bike and this product. I'm not sure if my engine was originally black or not. Many of the parts ARE a very dull grey, but I thought it was just faded aluminum or something. What should I use for my bike to brighten up the engine/header/misc. parts? I'm afraid to try the oven cleaner idea right now...being new to all of this, and not knowing exactly what's safe and what's not.

Here's a pic of my bike, and maybe you can get an idea of what exactly I'm dealing with:

http://www.wcnet.org/~cgmagrum/suzukicloseup.jpg

While I'm at it...any tips on how to get off some thick/tough rust on the header right where the pipes come out?