Cleaning Engine Block?

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I did some searching and couldn't find this mentioned, so here goes...

My 82 1100E has the natural aluminum finish on the engine. The cases actually look pretty good and the clearcoat has not gotten ugly (yet). However, the cylinder block and head (basically, all of the as-cast, finned pieces) have what looks like a layer of road film on them that does not seem to want to come off. Eventually, the engine will be stripped down and bead blasted, then painted with something like Alumi-bright. For the moment, I am looking for a cleaner that will take off that ugly layer of junk and restore some of the original shine to these cast pieces. Does anybody have something they have used and liked? I am thinking of something like S100, where you spray it on, let sit and then hose it off.

All experience, ideas, welcome.

Thanks,
Mark

[QuaiChangKane]

Mark,


I don't have a solution for you, but wanted to let you know that S100 won't work.

S100 is an oil - it's for restoring plastics, rubber, vinyl, and for shining up colored engine paint. It basically puts oils back into old paint and plastic, and won't cook off as fast as WD40 or other oils when used to restore color to faded engine paint.

As such - it's not a cleaner. There aren't any solvents in it....


(Worked wonders on my seat and trim plastics, though )


-Q!

[Joe Nardy]

Mark,


I don't have a solution for you, but wanted to let you know that S100 won't work.

S100 is an oil - it's for restoring plastics, rubber, vinyl, and for shining up colored engine paint. It basically puts oils back into old paint and plastic, and won't cook off as fast as WD40 or other oils when used to restore color to faded engine paint.

As such - it's not a cleaner. There aren't any solvents in it....


(Worked wonders on my seat and trim plastics, though )


-Q!

Q,

Are you referring to S100 Engine Brightener? If so, yes, it is for painted or plastic surfaces and it works great. However S100 makes several other products that may work on non-painted engines. The original S100 product was supposed to be an all-in-one cleaner for motorcycles. I tried it years ago and was not impressed by the results. Some of their other products may be what Mark needs.

Joe

[earlfor]

In 30 yeas, I've never found a magical spray it on, hose it off product that will take baked on grime off a bike to my satisfaction. Go to the hardware store and buy some small cleaning brushes. The look like a toothbrush, are about 3 times bigger and the bristles are much stiffer than a toothbrush. The usually come in a 3 pack for about $1. I use kerosene or diesel as a cleaning solvent and repeat the cleaning/scrubbing process until all the grime is gone.
Then mix liquid joy and some water and scrub the oily residue off and hose the soap off. It will only take a couple hours to do a really nice job.

You can use Gunk engine degreaser if you like, but it doesnt do any better job than the kerosene or diesel and costs about 8 times as much. :-)

Earl

[Guest]

Mark, I have the same bike. I carry a can of Gunk & some brushes like Earl uses to a local coin-op carwash about a mile away (works better with the engine warm). Spray the gunk & let sit for a few minutes....then use the brushes to break up the oil in various nooks & crannies. Then soap/rinse off. I suppose Gunk is safe on paint, but I avoid getting too much of it on the body etc. Also use the hi pressure trigger at the carwash carefully...only quick bursts to get stubborn stuff off the engine, under the fenders & the underside of the bike if you're picky .... the normal line pressure is enough to get the soap off the rest of the bike.

Dry, fire 'er up & ride off! 8) .
P.S: Carefull with the Gunk around the wheels as well, avoid getting any on the brakes!

Tony.

[Poot]

If your gonna bead blast it, then gunks probably your best bet. Make sure you dont buy the "citrus" kind as it smells like ass!


Otherwise, I cleaned my entire block with autosol polish, and a lot of elbow-grease.

poot

[Jay B]

Get your self a bottle of Simple Green and a old tooth brush.

[Evil Hobbit]

Get your self a bottle of Simple Green and a old tooth brush.

I'm with Jay here, if you want a nice clean engine. But, personally I normally get some gunk engine cleaner and follow the directions. My bike ain't pretty but it RUNS!

[Anonymous]

I don't know how good it was for my engine, but a mechanic friend recomended that I use some oven cleaner so get all the grime and oil off my engine. That is what he uses in the shop so I went ahead and tried it.

I think it was Easy Off oven clean. It worked very well. I sprayed it on my still hot engine and let it sit. Then I sprayed the engine off after it had cooled and pretty much every bit of gunk came off.

On a side note, I was worried about getting it on teh chrome so I tried to be very careful and not spray my pipes, this did leave some spot right around the pipes that are still nasty.

[LW_Icarus]

the oven cleaner didn't attack the rubber and plastic bits? thatd be my biggest concern.

[Anonymous]

the grit and grime was all on the front fins of the engine and there is no rubber or plastic to worry about there. Like I said my bigest concern was my chrome. Chrome just seems kinda delicate so I try to keep anything except mild detergent off of it. Dawn does wonders with cleaning road grit off the pipes. Follow up with a chrome polish and my pipes shine like new.

Still, I dunno how safe it is to use oven cleaner, my mechanic friends that recomended it is really good with cars, but cars have lotsa differences with bikes., but nothing seems to have been hurt by it, and this is my "toy" bike so I am willing to try things on it where I wouldn't on a more expensive bike.

[Macmatic]

On a side note, I was worried about getting it on teh chrome so I tried to be very careful and not spray my pipes, this did leave some spot right around the pipes that are still nasty.

Isn't the chrome on pipes the same as the chrome on oven racks, pretty much?

I used Easy Off a couple of weeks ago to clean my engine when it was out of the frame and it did a pretty good job. There were still some deposits left but this engine was NASTY. I used it a couple of times, scrubbing at the hardest spots and finally got it clean to the "screw this" point and went for the Duplicolor engine paint...

One thing though... I'd be careful using it on bare aluminum. I didn't really care about the case covers (clutch, stator ect) because I was swapping over some black ones from another engine and they got a little dark after awhile...but I was also leaving the cleaner on for a LONG time sometimes and using it at least 3-4 times over two days. At first it seemed to brighten the old covers right up.

/\/\ac

[GS700Jim]

Starting fluid (ether) works awesome for grease and grime... sprays it away with no residue.. just don't light a match in the area for a few minutes.

[Pete's GS]

If you want to get the gunk and grunge off I like to ride the bike, get the engine hot, and then spray brake cleaner or a degreaser, which is just acetone anyways, on the engine. It really works! If you want to brighten and repaint it, well, that's a different matter. But try this first because It think you'll see your engine's a lot nicer looking. The acetone just sort of evaporates with the dirt it dispels. Pretty trick.

[Romero]

get a can of mineral spirits and a good brush, then hose off.