engine cleaning and brightening

[MovOvr1]

Hello everyone! Just wanted to say first that this forum and many other pelican forums are great......what a great resource!

I have noticed that many people when they take their engines out that the pictures they post, the engine is grimy looking(well okay, like a normal engine) and when they show pictures of it going back in....it is absolutely gleaming! What sort of things does everybody do besides general cleaning. Do you paint, or have it blasted or ????? I am looking at dropping my engine in about a month (not for rebuild, just general fixes). But when I put it back in I would like it to shine a little more than it does now.

Thanks for any help

Brian

[oneblueyedog]

Scrubbed, chiseled,polished,dremeled,simichromed, bead blasted, stripped, scraped, dental picked, sanded,pressure washed, fiberglassed, epoxy glassed, clear Krylon'd, Powderpainted(two trips),wire wheeled, filed and ground. And about 2 cases of brake cleaner and 2 gallons of degreaser. Plus 4 trips to the car wash. $10 worth of quarters.

a FRiend came over today and commented how clean it was and said too bad no one will see it. I said,"but I will".

I'll post some pictures in a few days. I just hope I haven't rearranged my DNA too much and damaged too many brake cells-OH No, I mean brianm, brrrain cells. Brain

Woof

[magic930]

Lots of scrubbing, wire brushing, chemicals (Gunk, Brake cleaner and Carb Cleaner) and one $50 blaster from Sears!

[jgparker]

Spray on Castrol Super Clean undiluted and use a stiff bristle bush. It's a great starting point before you move on to the dailtailed cleaning. Do not get it on your skin, or it will dry out and chap. It's a bit more enviromentally friendly than the petroleum based solvents and disolves the gunk better than most.

[oneblueyedog]

Here's a picture of progress. I made my own spark plug wire keepers. I've got to find some silicone boots for the wires to valve cover area. I hope I don't have to cast them.

Fan shroud is repainted after an epoxyglass barrier of lite glasscloth. Painted with hi-heat engine paint.

[MovOvr1]

That looks gorgeous!!!

[tkrefeld]

Hey Dog,
Don't forget your needle nose pliers!

[nreed]

Oneblueyedog,

What do you mean by "Fan shroud is repainted after an epoxyglass barrier of lite glasscloth ".

What is lite glass cloth

...And I love the colour. What paint brand and colour did you use?

Looks fantastic BTW...

[oneblueyedog]

Whew. Got the needlenose pliers outta there.

The shroud was an adventure. I mistakenly stripped off the paint (found out it was paint, not gelcoat) with aircraft paint remover. This is not to be used with fiberglass! It eats it up. I got it neutralized and took it to a boat repair guy which confirmed the red was not a gelcoat but a paint of some sort. He was puzzled by the fiberglass and stated that it was most likely a proprietary hi temp resin and it was in sheet form and cured over some kind of mould. I had oil bubbling before I took the coating off, from high heat. When stripped, oil would leach out of the fiberglass. Where the oil seeped out, on the underside were tiny craze cracks no longer than 3mm. Heat stress cracks I presume. I K2R'd the bare fiberglass numerous times over a month and washed it itn acetone and such. I baked it in the sun and repeated the process.

I got the light glasscloth at an RC hobbyshop. .05 ounces per inch I think. It's maininly there to hold the finishing resin (2 part epoxy). The process is more involved than what follows but you mix up the resin and squeegee it on with old playing cards to cover all the weave and surface area of the part. Epoxy is compatible with polyester types of layups but not vice a versa. Then you try to get as much resin off the part as possible. I use a roll of toilet paper to soak up the excess resin. The excess is of no use except for ballast. Your part should have a dull weave look and no white bubbles where too much resin was removed. This barricaded the oils that may have been trapped in the old part. I don't think it's necessary to do it if your shroud is in decent shape. I then filled the weave with primer surfacer. You sand it almost completely off after drying so the weave is filled but don't sand through the glasscloth. Then give it one more light coat of primer surfacer and Scotchbrite that and then paint it.

I used hi temp engine paint from, I think, Dulpicolor-Chevy red. I used the heat the can up in hot water trick to atomize the paint. It fogged on nicely. This paint had a precision nozzle. The gloss is deep. It has ceramic on the can? I had to touch up a scratch though when I reattached the air guide and the touch up from the can will bubble up the previous coat. Be careful. The cure for this paint for recoating is over 7 days, if you don't recoat within one hour. I've let the part cure for 3 months.

I absolutely hate painting, but this time I was satified.

I think there are other threads in the technical area about shroud painting too.

Lessons is-don't use methylene chloride on fiberglass.

If you don't have time to go through all of this-buy a new one.

I still may have to depending on what happens after driving it.

Most of the technique comes from finishing RC aircraft.