Aluminum cleaners

james25 · Post by **james25** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:19 am

Do you guys know any liquid product that cleans heavy grime/oxidation from a bare aluminum? like trans case and engine blocks. Using sandpaper and a wire brush manually sucks. I can't find any at my local parts stores. I want to be able to just spray some cleaner, let it sit for a couple of mins, then rinse.

Post by **Bugermass** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 11:01 am

they make ultrasonic cleaners that you can put heads and block and other large parts in.. They clean like new.

butch11a · Post by **butch11a** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 6:56 pm

try using some phosporic acid based cleaners, its what i use before welding aluminum...

lilpooh21186 · Post by **lilpooh21186** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 1:10 am

if you can find a heavy duty degreaser it works great thats what i use from my work we have bags its like a 1part degreaser to 50 parts water this stuff is beyond consentrated. Burns to the touch without gloves or dilution its made by kay cleansing products. Or you can get some aircraft paintremover.

JaredKaragen · Post by **JaredKaragen** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 2:19 am

The BEST thing that I ever found to clean blocks: I used it to clean this block to ass you see in the pic below:

I used 1 gallon of turpentine (paint thinner) mixed with one quart of acetone. put the engine in a nice large catch pan... and use a paint brush... don't do any work.. just brush starting around the top, and slowly work your way down.... the block comes SHINY clean with ZERO effort... just dip the brush, and slop it on. That's it. Cheap, and EFFECTIVE!

butch11a · Post by **butch11a** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 6:19 am

nice, will try it, is turpentine the same as kerosene? i'm not sure if its readily available from where i'm at.

JaredKaragen · Post by **JaredKaragen** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 7:29 am

AKA \"paint thinner\" should be easily available... Kerosene will work; but will evaporate faster, and be much more prone to catching fire

james25 · Post by **james25** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 9:49 am

Nice! turpentine and acetone I can find at home depot. I'll give it a shot. It cleans oxidation too?

Almighty-Si · Post by **Almighty-Si** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 3:13 pm

Simple Green works well, not as well as some of the other things listed above but I have done it a few times and it looked almost new.

JaredKaragen · Post by **JaredKaragen** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 8:07 pm

james25 wrote:Nice! turpentine and acetone I can find at home depot. I'll give it a shot. It cleans oxidation too?

Maybe... I don't see why not.... cause this motor I got was in a barn for a few years before I bought it and cleaned it like this... I was out of spray cleaners (which are mainly acetone and xylene, which are more expensive and I ran out) so I tried the acetone I had.. and was amazed.... there was no oxidation to be found after the simple cleaning... maybe a toothbrush, but I dunno if you need to work tat hard honestly =)

xenocron · Post by **xenocron** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 11:42 pm

If you are using ACETONE, make sure you were GLOVES (that can handle how corrosive that shit is) and dont get any on your skin.

JaredKaragen · Post by **JaredKaragen** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 2:17 am

xenocron wrote:If you are using ACETONE, make sure you were GLOVES (that can handle how corrosive that shit is) and dont get any on your skin.

correct; I use the nice blue gloves from the snap-on truck.. not snap-on brand, but the good ones (can't remember brand, but I can use the same set of gloves for about 3 weeks)

greasemonkee · Post by **greasemonkee** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:01 pm

Hope you guys are wearing thick gloves that acetone can't penetrate. Gloves in general open the pores in the skin making it easier for the solvent to get in the blood. Eyes can absorb a lot of vapor too. I'd certainly wear a good charcoal respirator if I used that. Castrol superclean would make the block look new, just with a lot of these harsh chemicals, they promote corrosion and the chemicals won't ever come out no matter how hard you wash.

james25 · Post by **james25** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 8:57 am

We have a barrel of Castrol Superclean at work, I took some home to clean a valve cover once. Big mistake I made, I let the cleaner sit too long on the valve cover and when I rinsed and brushed it, it left dark spots on the valve cover that wouldn't come off. Ended up painting the valve cover.