How do I clean this?

[waffles]

Hello everyone! I'm in the process of slowly rebuilding a 3.2 to drop into my 93 MTX. I have everything torn down, the next step (or so I thought) is hot tanking, I called the guy up and he told me that hot tanking wouldn't remove the rust and paint! So I was wondering what I need to do to the block and heads before they hit the hot tank? How do I remove the rust? Do I remove the freeze plugs? Any help is appreciated!:thankyou:

 

[Phoenix]

For me , I used a die grinder with a wire wheel. And some thinner or brake cleaner. You can remove the freeze plugs if you want but you will have to buy new ones. If it doesnt leak , you can leave them there.

 

[waffles]

So just go to town with the good ole wire brush?

 

[sperold]

Suit yourself, but I would not hot-tank it at all. Clean it up the old fashioned way, use pipe cleaners or gun cleaning brushes on oil passages. You might consider looking up the thread on putting a block heater in the block while you can see everything. The frost plugs have been known to rot through, I would tap on them to get a sound and see if they all have the same sound. I have never had one fail, but these are my first off-shore engines.
The right paint will cover everything on the outside, and people have actually painted the inside as well, but I have never had the courage to do that.

 

[AREA 91]

I always change the freeze plugs.
I have a pressure washer that I use that has heat and soap.
You will get soaked head to toe doing it this way, though.

 

[waffles]

Thanks for the input guys! I hope to be getting some air tools soon, I like the die grinder with the brush idea, I'm still interested in hot tanking the heads though as there is ZERO rust on them and it's all just grease. Would I still want to hot tank the block if I can see yellow scale in the cooling jackets?

 

[jimtash]

Best way to get the scale out is after the engine has been started. Don't put anti-freeze in initially. Just plain water and after driving it for a while, add a cooling system cleaner and follow the directions. Drain the system then add coolant.

Water by itself is actually better for overheating protection so you don't have to worry about destroying the engine. Do not attempt this though if the temps outside are cold.

The best product to use to clean engine parts is Chem Dip. It's sold everywhere in gallon cans. I use a paint brush to smear it everywhere, let it sit and then rinse it off. It takes off everything and fast too. This is how this head went from this:



To this:

 

[msteiny]

All things considered, your block really isn't that bad. When I did mine I pulled the freeze plugs and sprayed CLR inside every water jacket I could. Then I took some old brass brushes from my gun cleaning kit with a section of old gun brush rod and attached it to my regular drill and cleaned it out the best I could. After that I took the block to a transmission shop and had them clean it with their rotisserie/dish washer for about an hour. The cost is a lot cheaper than a hot tank bath. Then back on the engine stand and went after all the rust with a 1 inch knot wire cup brush on an electric drill and some brake cleaner. Took me all of and hour or two and I was painting the block. The only thing that sucks is that your going to spend all this time like I did on cleaning the block. Get it all back together and and you can't even see all the work you did. Have fun.

 

[shoon]

I opted to hot tank... But I had a ton of gunk/sludge buildup. Another cheaper option would be boiling hot water, TSP, and a rubbermaid bin from wallmart. Give you a hot caustic solution that eats most of the crap off.
Before:



After:

 

[Ishodu]

That looks like it did a great job. Good work.