cleaning alloy parts....
 

I was cleaning some alloy engine parts with carb cleaner and a brush and while they are very clear I was wondering how to get them 'new' clean.

I have an ultrasonic cleaner I use for small electric parts, but that will not work. Is that something short of soda blasting that will clean alloy parts and make them look shiny new again?

I am leaning towards the type of cleaners that reloaders use for their brass, but I thought I would ask here before buying anything.

I recently cleaned out an entire toyota inline 4 cylinder head of varnish and oil with mean green concentrate and hot water to flush.

I then spray some WD40 on the parts to keep them oiled and clean. Gets to nearly 90% of new cast clean.

if your parts are corroded or gray then soda blasting is the only way.

Thanks. It is the 'gray' you speak of that is giving me fits.

I will pick up some Mean Green and give it a try. I will also start looking for a soda blasting rig as I have a number of parts I would like to clean and it seems that I am never happy with what I get back when I send parts out.

I blasted some aluminum parts and it will clean them up, BUT you will have a grainey appearance and not smooth. I am not too happy, so I would recommend against any sort of blasting media. What I resorted to was then sanding the pieces which gave them a really nice shinny appearance. Then, a buffing wheel for almost like chrome.

I did my Valve Cover with just sanding in successively finer grits, e.g., 600, then up to 1000. Then, I buffed it. My first time and I was really happy with that. However, that is likewise not factory looking new since it is smooth and super shiney.

I even tried the boat aluminum cleaner stuff, and it still had some scale left over, so you will end up with grainey and grey with blasting or really shiney or smooth with sanding and buffing.

Thanks for that. I would have been quite depressed if I had purchased the soda blasting kit and found I still had the gray appearance. I am not going for show quality; I just want it to look as new as possible since it is going to start getting dirty again right away. It will just be easier to keep clean if I start with something that is grease and crud free.

some aluminum alloy castings come out brand new when cleaned with hydroflouric acid type cleaner - I bought a bottle of it from NAPA as mac's wheel brightener.

As usual always try in a hidden area - reason being I tried to shine up the intake manifold of my OM606 engine and it only stained it black where I tried, the mean green and grout brush really cleaned it out.

OTOH - the same product shined up the entire front end of a corvette which is made of aluminum to factory brand new clean.

be very - very VERY careful with this product - it will suck out the calcium from your body - wear proper heavy duty gloves.

My bad for not mentioning this. If you want an OEM type new look, try finding a company which has a vibratory tumbler. I saw some pretty crappy parts before and after and that was the ticket. The only thing I do not know is if it will round anything off you dont want rounded off. I am talking about a hair or tiny amount, but still. If you want a part's corner or surface to be super crisp or sharp, this might affect that. But for surface appearance, this might be the ticket.

I have an old rock tumbler that one of my kids used about 30 years ago. I will give it a try with some walnut media which is really pretty cheap around here.

I did use some Berryman Chemstrip and it took the grease off but left the alloy looking gray. But it is clean, so into the rock tumbler and then......? I am going to try this with something I will not miss if it all goes south.

One handy little tool for cleaning parts is a cheap battery powered toothbrush from Wal-Mart. (Cheap = $7.50) Hose the part with carb cleaner and apply the brush just like you would to your teeth. It will get down into the smaller areas that are tough to clean out of ribbed castings. Get the ones with the firm head as the soft head might be great for your teeth but not so much for caked on grease, dirt and oil.

But you are still left with a tiny bit of gray. I am beginning to think that some alloy parts were cast that way to begin with, but I recall them as being nicer looking when I was looking at them at the dealer in the late 60's.