I’m wondering if yous could help me on how to clean engine parts like valve cover and intake, metal things.
I’ve tried oven cleaner on my valve cover and have a before and after below
It didn’t look great and I thought it would because my mate sent me a picture of his intake he cleaned with oven cleaner and it looked new (also attached)
Am I using it wrong or is there another way to clean them, I know you could maybe sand them down and paint them but I’m looking for the least skillful method, and there’s gotta be a way to just clean bare metal and not paint it?
I don’t know of its suitability for this job but my missus uses the type of oven cleaner that you place the item in a sealed bag (comes in the cleaning kit) brings up the oven shelves like new.
Wear gloves (supplied)
I agree. The internal baffle plate needs to come out to avoid a problem of trapped debris being left in there. My son bought a cam cover that had been powder coated. Whoever had done it had grit blasted it and the plate was left in place. It was jam packed with grit! Had he fitted it it would have ruined his engine in seconds. Thankfully we removed the plate and found it.
The heads of the small flanged screws holding said plate are very prone to damage on removal because they are assembled very tightly. Understandably so; if they fall out they will possibly cause a major problem.
If anyone needs some I have a supply of them.
Edit: I had the cam cover of my own NB aqua blasted. I then spray painted it high temperature silver and sealed it with a clear petrol proof lacquer.
Yeah that’s a good idea, what spray could I use along with wire brush and wool to get the original metal back from the oily plates, saw a guy using some red spray I don’t know off.
Also I don’t have a blaster or know someone with a blaster near me unfortunately, guessing the only other way is to paint it so I’m still have have to sand it.
Plus this is only an experiment because I want to learn so paying for a service isn’t an option, I could sell the cover in the end if I get good results but really hoping for something DIY kid friendly haha
After years of doing this sort of thing I’ve learnt after taking into account the cost of materials the quality of finish I want and the time which would be better spent doing other mx5 work I’m better served taking the offending bit to someone with much better equipment than I may get and store domestically and the training to use it.
That said while at I have had many parts soda or sand blasted I have never had any alloy engine parts cleaned other than a block (Alfa) and head and I am looking around at companies that sonic clean at the moment.
Diy you have to degrease it with proper degreaser, not kitchen products, otherwise you’ll just rub contaminants into the surface of the metal. Then sanding it you’ll scratch it to buggery and you won’t be able to get in the corners and after you’ve spent some hours and some pounds on even basic materials you’ll have a very obviously diy job at a price that were you paying yourself you’d be well under National minimum wage if took the cost of someone else doing it as a benchmark.
Inlet manifold cleaning in Newcastle quote £99 plus vat - so say £120 on their website to get the manifold cleaned. Given the company is actually called inlet manifold cleaning I’m guessing a lot of people must take that get someone to do it option.
Hmm, I would not even dream of using caustic soda (ie sodium hydroxide) on aluminium, unless I wanted lots of (possibly explosive) heat and hydrogen. Using a bag will only make things more dangerous by concentrating the heat and hydrogen.
I remember the reaction from Chemistry at school, very small quantities but still interesting.
Here is a quote I lifted from Google,
“It is highly alkaline in nature and on reaction with metals including Aluminium it releases hydrogen gas and the reaction is highly exothermic. So, when Aluminium which is an amphoteric metal reacts with caustic soda it will form sodium aluminate and hydrogen gas is evolved as a result.”
Or is this all a wind-up from someone searching for a volunteer to be a potential candidate for a ‘Darwin Award’?
I wouldn’t advise using ‘Oven Pride’ on aluminium… it will eat it if left on too long. A friend ruined a Campagnolo groupset with that stuff. It will remove any anodising in a very short space of time, keep your eye on it and have lots of warm water handy to rinse it off quickly.
A good engine cleaner (Gunk, etc.) and a brass brush (tooth brush size to get into the nooks and crannies) will do the job. The aluminium surface will have oxydised slightly (a whitish powdery residue) which readily absorbs oil to form the mess you’ve got. I’d avoid anything more drastic as many propriety kitchen cleaners will not be kind to rubber components. There are no rubber gaskets in an oven!
