-> Most automotive machine shops can "hot tank" a block. It's basically
-> a wash solution of hot caustic stuff.
The caustic solution is plain old lye soap. I have a hot caustic tank
for cleaning engine blocks and the like.
-> The "green" alternative is hot water, pressure and time.
Commonly called a 'jet cleaner'. They work quite well and are less
messy than the caustic tanks. A friend has one of those as well as a
caustic tank. The jet cleaner has a couple of advantages - it can clean
aluminum parts, which would be eaten by the caustic, and it can clean
blocks with the cam bearings still in place. On some engines, such as
5.0 and 460 Fords, cam bearings are bored after installation, so it's a
good idea to retain and re-use them if they're not badly worn.
Some shops use 'thermal' cleaning. They bake the parts at 600F to
turn the grunge into ash, blast them with steel shot, and tumble them to
get the shot out. The parts come out beautifully clean, but you have a
50/50 chance that the part will come out cracked.
==dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us======================================
I've got a secret / I've been hiding / under my skin / | Who are you?
my heart is human / my blood is boiling / my brain IBM | who, who?
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