Soaking gunged engine bits

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Swanrad2

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I have removed bits of my engine (related thread-thanks for contributions). I would like to soak the removed bits in a solution to de gunk the bits as completely as possible. I was thinking some fairly dilute acetic or oxalic acid (preferably oxalic), chucking in a fish pump for circulation and leaving it to cook for a week. Apparently brick cleaner (acidic) or central heating filler works as well.

Any thoughts?
 
What is the gunk made of? If oil based then soak in diesel or degreaser (Deb Jizzer is quite good).
If the gunk is sea water based then some form of mild acid is best. If your doing exhaust parts then fresh water is best as the exhaust deposits mix with water to turn fresh water into a mild sulphuric acid.
 
cryan said:
If your doing exhaust parts then fresh water is best as the exhaust deposits mix with water to turn fresh water into a mild sulphuric acid.
Click to expand...

Apologies for going off thread but ---That is an interesting comment!
Would that suggest that my annual ritual of flushing my seawater cooling system with fresh water ( +antifreeze) is actually allowing acid to develop & to lay in the system all winter
 
have a word with Oiltechnics.com

They have a range of cleaners and solvents (some of them biological / enzyme based) which may be appropriate to the type of contamination on the engine.


If you use a fish pump in an acid bath, won't the pump be subject to erosion ?
 
I would imagine some bits of the fish pump will be, the thing would be too contaminated to use afterwards anyway - it's a spare (just don't tell my wife!). The idea is moving the mix around.

The contamination by the way is engine+how sea water based. I haven't tested it but have always been led to believe that this will be best eroded with mild acid.

Cheers,

Tony
 
Daydream believer said:
Apologies for going off thread but ---That is an interesting comment!
Would that suggest that my annual ritual of flushing my seawater cooling system with fresh water ( +antifreeze) is actually allowing acid to develop & to lay in the system all winter
Click to expand...

Antifreeze is usually alkali so it would neutralise the acid. Also the fresh water would only meet the exhaust products in the exhaust hoses which wouldn't be affected. If your water trap is metal it could be affected but most likely by just being cleaned.
Its the sulphur in the fuel which causes the formation of the acid (I think but not a chemist) at sea we used to clean turbo charger rotors by suspending them in fresh water and setting an airline to bubble through it. After a day or so it would be spotless. Its not a strong acid and you can still put your hands in it but its as strong enough to do the job.
 
In my previous life as a Vintage and classic Motorcycle dealer we had on site Nickel Plating facilities. The solution was highly alkaline and was circulated by a large domestic aquarium pump.
It never gave problems and was working when I passed it on to another dealer, after at least ten years use by me.
The pump was plastic and was not very expensive. The alkaline solution was heated too.
I doubt mild acid would be a problem.
 
Swanrad2 said:
I have removed bits of my engine (related thread-thanks for contributions). I would like to soak the removed bits in a solution to de gunk the bits as completely as possible. I was thinking some fairly dilute acetic or oxalic acid (preferably oxalic), chucking in a fish pump for circulation and leaving it to cook for a week. Apparently brick cleaner (acidic) or central heating filler works as well.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

What bits??????? If say the exhaust manifold then just soaking in a tank may be a slow process as there would be so many dead spots in the dark depths
of the internal passageways. Circulation would be required so may be using your fish pump to get the fluid to move through the passageways. You may still
need to give some help with stiff electric flex etc to help loosen deposits

The passageways in the cylinder heads are more open so they might clear just with soaking.

Remember that all you will remove with the brick cleaner will be the chalk like deposits which you may not have. If the engine has been run with the correct
thermostat this might not be a problem and you may only have mud and rust deposits which will need a different method of removal.

More info from you regarding which bits and what appears to be need being removed might help.
 
I have removed the heads and the exhaust manifold. the heads are being refurbed at an engineers and I am replacing the exhaust elbow so really the manifold only now the engineers have cast their eyes over the heads and said they are OK.

We have cleaned what we can see and when the engine is put back together we will be running the same solution through it for as long as I can stand lugging mild acids around the yard from outlet to inlet - I might be able to balance the fish yank pump to lift the water from outlet to the gravity fed inlet 'buckets', but even so I think my neighbours would lynch me if I ran the engine for a full tank of diesel..
 
I would stick with oxalic if you are using an acid. Brick cleaner/HCl will go for the iron too especially if you warm it up and leave it immersed for a week.

Brick cleaner is ok if you stand and watch for fizzing, hopefully it will be CO2 from the acid reacting with carbonate deposits. It could be hydrogen from the acid eating your steel engine though.

Phsical methods ( poking with a stick, wire brush, bottle brush ) with the help of a mild chemical method would be my favoured method of removing deposits once the engine is in bits.

Oxalic should remove black carp/rust too, it'll just be slower than HCl.
 
I cleaned up the exhaust manifold in my old Bukh 20 very effectively using Fernox DS3 in a hot soaking solution. Basically just marinaded it in recommended concentration (+ a bit!) with near boiling water & repeated x 1 when water had cooled, brief manual scrub to finish.
 
I had a sudden (and probably stupid) thought. Anyone who likes a stir fry knows that the splatter on the cooker is proof of how varnish is made - boiled oil. I used Fairy Power thingy , which is after all just relatively undiluted detergent. The label says to rinse off after 20 mins, but of course I sat and watched a film... I no longer have those diagrams of which tap operates which burner! Wonder how this would cope with engine gunge?

Rob.
 
OK then - a fairly dilute solution of Oxalic acid with some fairy liquid, aquarium pump (or maybe an old electric whisk set at slow). Leave for a week. Repeat.

Wish me luck, I'm going in.
 
The nice guy at the engineers had a boiling bath of stuff that he popped the manifold into, shiny and nice.

Cheers, still a bit more with the Oxalic acid.

Tony
 
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