[KTL]

Cam towers are a pain to clean due to their tight spaces that are hard to get into with cleaning brushes. Use a medium sized plastic tub with parts cleaning solvent in it and soak the towers for a day. I've used Berryman parts cleaner with good results. You may be able to get it at your local auto parts store like Autozone. They sell it in one gallon cans with a dipping tray inside it.

I soaked my pistons overnight in the Berryman and it did an awesome job of killing the carbon buildup. Their most recent formulation is also less toxic. So you still need gloves but it doesn't stink up the whole garage. The previous stuff was some yellowish nasty stuff that worked good but you couldn't get the stink off the parts.


There's lots of solvents to choose from. Many people just use carb cleaner but that stuff is nasty stuff in terms of fumes. I have had good results with citrus based cleaners (Xenit) and also soy based from Franmar. The soy one is not necessarily aluminum friendly in terms of long term soaking. So you have to clean & scrub manually, then rinse the parts clean with a soapy rinse (like dawn dishwashing soap) with plenty of water.

The gasket sealant is a pain to get off. Permatex used to make a great spray can gasket remover that kicked the shiznit out of the dried sealant. But the new low VOC formulation is weak. I tried a couple of other gasket remover solvents and found that Loctite's Chisel Remover works good with a few applications of it and plenty of scraping with a razor.

Others have recommended MEK solvent with metal bristle brushe. I tried that but its nasty stuff. Its also very evaporative so you can't apply the stuff and come back later & scrape off the softened sealant. It evaporates too fast so you have to soak it. Plus, the MEK is NASTY stuff. Need to wear heavy solvent resistant gloves (not just the typical nitrile mechanic gloves) and definitely a respirator frogman sort of mask.

Honestly if you're in a hurry, having your parts media blasted is the way to go. Blasting gets them much cleaner than solvent. Just have to be cautious of what media is used and avoid some of the sensitive/critical sealing areas. You can blast heads and cam towers quite easily. Cylinders can be blasted on exterior but don't mess with the bores of course. I'd be careful of the mating surfaces between the cylinders and heads. Pistons should only be blasted on their tops.