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Thread: Engine washing and cleaning after being machined?

  1. #1
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    Engine washing and cleaning after being machined?

    Right, after my ca18det going boom and one of the rod bearings spinning i decided to rebuild her, fully forged, as a project. I had some trouble with the machine shop i used but basically i had bought a fully machined and ready ca18det block from them, as they had one from someone elses abondened project. After much time waiting on them cutting oil notches in my pistons, i finally went to check my bearing clearances to find i had the wrong crank caps with the block. When i went back to them with this they said they could not find the caps but would bring my original block up to spec with the one i had been sold.

    After receiving this back ive went to rebuild and to be honest the inside of the block such as all the oil gallerys are still dirty with oil and gunk and between the crank saddles and the bores its still quite dirty. They have obviously just done the bores and decked it without giving her a proper clean as they were losing out having to do another block, but ive been back and forth to the shop so many times i cant be bothered dealing with them anymore. What i am worried about is the fact that a bearing has spun in this block before and all this will be trapped in the oil lines and gallerys and all this dirt will very much shorten the life of my nice new engine.

    I am worried about cleaning her as any water on the machined surfaces and it will rust instantly, i have though about using gunk and engine brushes to clean out the gallerys and outside/inside of engine, but scared of geeting water on bores when rinsing.

    So im really wondering if anyone out there has cleaned an engine post machining and can give some pointers on how to tackle this job as its put me so far behind with this rebuild already. What products? how to protect the bores?

    any info much appreciated, cheers.

  2. #2
    Guest hooky's Avatar
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    I've always just jetwashed mine (diesel heated one) with a degreasing additive, then blown it all out with an airline, followed by a coat of engine oil on all the machined surfaces.

    Dont worry too much about some SLIGHT surface oxidisation it always cleans up easily with a bit of scotchbrite and oil.

  3. #3
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    You really need to remove the main gallery oil plugs and get the block properly cleaned in a heated tank. You find a lot of places do it quite cheaply and youll get a much better job than doing in at home. I have seen properly cleaned blocks that look perfect on the outside still be full of crap in the main oil galleries so you need to make sure these ares are ubber clean. Spray of ACF50 or oil the bores etc will stop any rust forming.

  4. #4
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    carwash with hot water, i've allways done this, evrywhere, including oil galleries off course, after that, you dry it and put some wd40 on surfaces that are machined, to prevent of quick rust appearing.

  5. #5
    Engine Builder Mark's Avatar
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    I did mine in a proper degreaser tank and then hot rotory wash wash at work followed by blowing it all out with an airline. As Paul said you should be able to find somewhere to do this quite cheaply
    Quote Originally Posted by silverzx View Post
    I like Mark, he seems fair.
    Quote Originally Posted by Slip_n_slide View Post
    Mark is right.

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