Cleaning Oxides from Motor

[ALB80-850]

cleaning oxides

cleaning oxides

Greetings,
Just to share my experiences. I was going for a brushed aluminum look or a clean surface to be painted.
I removed the part to be cleaned, sprayed it with aircraft remover to cut the clearcoat, washed the parts with baking soda and water to nutralize the acid in the cleaner, then I used scotch brite pads in a dremel tool to polish away the oxides(elbow grease will also work). The more you polish using finer and finer grit polishing compounds will result in a mirror finish. I used the brushed look,then did the once over by hand to even it out, washed with laquer thinner and let dry. I then primed the parts with hi-temp primer and let dry, did a scuff coat and repeated 3 times. I used a satin finish black paint for the color coat(3x)also hi-temp. I applied 3 coats of clear satin hi-temp. for the finish coat. The end results were better than I hoped for, and seemed to be quite durable as well. I did this process on the cam end covers, points cover and side cover below the starter. I hope this info will help. Have a great summer and be safe.

Andy

 

[Agtbar]

I wish i had it as easy as that,the engine i've got to work on will not be such a push over as it was sitting in the bike for about ten years near the ocean. The cases are a powdery mess with corrosion all over it, if the thing didnt only have 9,000 and a bit miles on it i'd have stripped it down and vapour blasted it.
So heres my plan which will be as close to open heart surgery as you can get, i am going to sand blast the engine while its still together, covering all holes and seals with protective covers to stop sand ingress and damage to items such as oil seals etc.
Once ive got this done, which will take some serious time because you have to remove only the corrosion and not wear the cases with excess abrasion, ill prime and paint the engine met silver and clearcoat it. Yeah i know the outer covers wont be polished but they keep turning anyway so for now ill set it up as all met silver.

 

[Mike_H]

AGTbar---Make sure you use the proper media. Glass beads, or Walnut shells will wear the aluminum less than sand. Other than that, media blasting works really well.


I have also found that diesel fuel is about the best thing out there for degunking an engine. No smoking people. As far as a polish goes...I prefer the wet sand method. Start with 220, and work your way up to about 800, then use rubbing compond, and then polishing compound. Finish it off with mothers, or equivalant. Once its shiney, a powerball works wonders for keeping it that way.

 

[liv2wrshp]

I'm new to all this, but my engine desperately needs help. I can't get it to polish right, but I'm confused about something. You all talk about painting your engine. Is that something that I need to do? I was hoping to be able to clean it on the bike.