Will ultrasonic cleaning remove carbon around a piston?
 

Will ultrasonic cleaning remove the carbon around a piston? I want to clean the underside of my pistons and wondered if Ultrasonic cleaning would do the trick.

Alan.UK

Yes. I just did six heads in simple green in an ultrasonic. It takes more than a few hours, but it even remove the baked on stuff in the combustion chamber. I put the parts in a bucket suspended in the ultrasonic so I wouldn't have to clean out the bath.

tadd

Sounds great, any before and after pics? I think I might buy one. Any good links for sellers in the US? I want one big enough to fit a carb in there?

Thanks

Alan

I didn't take any pictures... That tends to get saved for the shiny stuff - sorry.

I got mine surplus. It's a big one, one cubic yard.

These days internet is most likely the cheapest...

tadd

Thanks Tadd

Alan

Alan:
you may want to hit some of the used industrial equipment sites if you want a larger size. I would look for the smaller sizes new as folks tend to burn them up by running them w/o liquid (it gets warm during a long run and evaporates - one got nuked at work that way).

tadd

Hi Tadd,

Thinking on getting one of these?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/INDUSTRIAL-6-5-LITER-ULTRASONIC-CLEANER-W-TIMER-HEATER_W0QQitemZ7609589366QQcategoryZ31459QQrdZ1QQ cmdZViewItem

I need to measure a carb first, but I think it will fit in a 300 x 150x 150 tank?

Alan

Looks good. I've really liked mine. Utrasonic and simple green are a great combo.

Don't forget that you can stick half of in and flip it over to do the other half...

tadd

Thanks Tadd,

Your help is much appreciated

Alan

I just soaked my carbon covered pistons in simple green for a 3 days. Works great! Not as fast as the unltrasonic method with simple green, but very effective.

Now I wonder if the same will work for you? :D

Simple green is wonderful stuff, but for baked on carbon, you really need the ultrasonic to force the water into the voids in the hydrophobic carbon where it can heat locally and 'soften' it.

Your pistons were pretty darn clean according to those pics on the early911 board! Lucky you.

tadd

Not sure if this is pertinent, but some folks write about cautions using Simple Greeen. An overnight soak in carb cleaner usually does the trick, without the vibrations.

Sherwood

I would be very curious at to what those would be since simple green is just water, cellouse and lipase. The enzymes denature pretty quick, and are just proteins.

Carb cleaner are nice halocarbons that are not good for the enviroment or you.

I got enough chemical exposure in grad school. I try to be a bit more careful now... SmileWavy

tadd

To save you guys time, I did the search:

FWIW:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=202613&highlight=simple +green

I guess it's not as benign as many think.

Sherwood

Easy Off oven cleaner and a little heat and you're done in 20 minutes.
Place the pistons in the oven and heat to 180 or so.
Set them on a cookie sheet or concrete an spay with the oven clean. Wait 15-20 minutes or until it stop fizzing and rinse with water.
Watch the pistons because if left on too long the Easy Off will turn aluminum black. No damage just black .

Dear Friends
i Just bought 360 liter ultrasonic cleaning machine to clean our very contaminated cylinder head and other engine parts, but the result is not like as we see on YouTube videos ,
so i just wondering if those clips are really true, Which part of our work is wrong? since we never seen that kind of cleanness on our automotive parts as we see on advertisement .
its very kind of you if you could help us about our problem ?
our machine specification : 360 liter / 3600 Watt ultrasonic power / 28 khz / bottom mounted transducers / power control - degas mode and automatic loading and unloading .
do you think the problem is our machine or we have to find a better detergent ?
do you use any kind of pre washing method before putting in your ultrasonic ?
how much time approximately do you spend for cleaning very contaminated engine parts on your machine?

a few hours in Berryman® Chem-Dip® Professional will do it too.

There is also a different version of Simple Green that is supposed to be safe for aluminum and other metals. I ordered some but have not had a need to use it yet.

Easy-Off will straight up tear up carbon and grease.........and aluminum.

It's caustic (IIRC), and will beat up on aluminum leaving a nice, blackish green layer of oxidation if left on too long or not neutralized. Learned on my cases. Looked great, then turned dark within minutes/hours. I guess water is not enough to neutralize?

I use a local product from a company that supplies a lot of tool shops called degreaser plus heated in my ultrasonic cleaner cam carriers after 20 min

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