Of Antifreeze and pistons, (What cleans it off )

[afterburn 549]

To the point, I have a brand new set of pistons here that have been run in a storm of antifreeze.
Perhaps about 14 hours at full load than set about 3 years in the engine on a shelf.
To this point in my life, combustion leaks with H20 intrusion has looked more like a steam cleaning to me.
Now i have on my shop bench what the old guys clalled Black Goo.
These are so gummied up that the piston rings are stuck!
This looks more like silicate mixed with tar and a fair amont of EPOXY.
Its a very long story, but that is the part I would like to solve "How to Salvage these Pistons "?
What will clean this stuff off?
The rest is boring - Experiminatel engine with wet liners were just that- R & D sucked.
More on that in a latter thread.

[Por_sha911]

What does a machine shop charge to do it right?

[fastfredracing]

Soak in carb dip ?

[M.D. Holloway]

maybe pure biodiesel or brake cleaner...or blast it with pecan shells.

[afterburn 549]

Post # 2 Do what right?
#3 I will try that , might be a great idea!
At a 200.00 plus bucks each, I would like to save these if the effort does not out weigh the new parts.

[Por_sha911]

A machine shop will know exactly what is needed to clean them up well (stuck rings) without you having to use and dispose of solvents. Sometimes its easier to just let someone do it and it may not be that expensive. Did you ask anyone? Heck, if you the know the guy he may just say "use this and do it yourself"

[herr_oberst]

Find someone who does dry ice cleaning:

[afterburn 549]

Some great ideas here! Tolerances have e to be considered so nothing too harsh can be used.
I will try the carb dip first and see if that will eat the scum away.
Thanx!

[sc_rufctr]

Acetone.

It can dissolve cured polyester resin so it should work but be careful it's highly flammable.

[masraum]

Back in the old days, when you had a motor to be rebuilt, the old parts were all sent to the machine shop to be cleaned. I think they called it "hot tanking". I've seen some pretty nasty stuff come back looking remarkably clean. I vote for the machine shop route too. The kind of machine shop that does motor rebuild tasks.

[LakeCleElum]

Does this tie into you "Harley Hop-up" thread????

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by LakeCleElum

Does this tie into you "Harley Hop-up" thread????

Only if it's water cooled...

[GWN7]

Gunk carb cleaner or try cleaning in a solvent tank first.

[1990C4S]

I would drop them off somewhere that has a high pressure wash tank that uses heated solvent.

Diesel engine rebuilders usually have one.

[afterburn 549]

No water cooled HD here .
But I do have very good running one!
Thanx folks----
I will with your ideas solve this.

[Scott Douglas]

Don't forget, most antifreeze turns corrosive after a given amount of time. You're probably looking at aluminum being eaten away by the antifreeze.
Good luck.

[Arizona_928]

Like dissolves like. Add heat to speed up the reaction.

[908/930]

Try soaking it in the same antifreeze and scrubbing it off, possibly warm it up. Usually the same material should dissolve the old base, then clean with solvent based product.

[DanielDudley]

ATF is the least corrosive and most gentle 'solvent''. Add acetone if you want to up the ante.

[ckelly78z]

In a ventilated area, soak them in MEK, or Toluene. I used thin rubber surgical gloves, and the fingers of the gloves stretched, and finally fell off when I tried to remove them in favor of thicker gloves.....powerful stuff.