What's The Best Way To Have A Block Cleaned/Descaled

It's fully biodegradeable! Pour into your garden. I still don't get why this guy(deadbodyman) flew all over x38's reply? This method really works. It may not be the correct method for those living in town or cities, but for those in the country with time to spare, it can't be beat. Of course, I do live really close to a cane syrup mill in Louisiana, but what do I know! I've only cleaned 6 flatheads and two Desotos lately in the same barrel. They come out looking like new castings. Steven.

 

Are you trolling for aggro responses man?

Blown Flatheads (inc my own) that run cool enough to not need an engine fan means a clean water jacket/head combo.

They were cleaned using a mol***es/water bath mix.

Ever tried cleaning with mol***es?

Cheap, effective, and SAFE....pour the remnants into the garden when done, its good for your plants? See? Its even enviro friendly.

If you're worried about the smell, fit the sealed lid to your 44G drum....no smell.

I have a pair of Flatty 8RT heads and a Desoto hemi steel crank sitting in my drum atm.

If you want to speed up the reaction, add a fish tank heater to the soup - itll keep the temps up in colder climates and therefore speed up the reaction (thats a Flatoz special tip haha)

Excerpt form the above link......

"Removing rust using Mol***es uses a process known as Chelating. Without a good, scientific explanation, the process can be described as "Reverse Oxidation", wherein certain acids or chemicals in the mol***es solution strip the oxygen from the Iron Oxide, leaving the iron behind. While I'm not absolutely positive about what exactly causes the rust to be removed, I am sure about one thing: It works.

The process is slow compared with other methods; electrolysis, various other acids, abrasives. Surface rust can be removed in a day or several, while heavy rust will require at least a couple of weeks. However, there are several advantages!

1. The ingredients are inexpensive. I purchased 5 gallons of feed-grade mol***es from the grain elevator yesterday for less than $9, and that included a dollar for the container (because I didn't have one with me). This is enough to produce 20-50 gallons of solution (usually 1:4 or 1:10 is used).

2. There are no dangerous chemicals. Unlike some of the other methods, there is nothing that can burn your skin or eyes, and most other metals are unaffected, by this method.

3. There are no toxic by-products. The solution can be used repeatedly, for many months, but when it's time to dispose, you can safely pour out onto the lawn, where the mol***es and water will decompose naturally.

4. It's effective. All oxidation will be completely removed, given enough time in the bath. The clean metal underneath will not be affected. For heavy rust it will take longer, and certainly a wire brush will help remove the large depsits, and help the process by allowing fresh mol***es to come into contact with the rust.

Now, there are a couple of drawbacks. First, the process is slow. I've already mentioned that, but if you have more time than money, it's a great way to get rid of the rust on your restoration projects. Also, the Mol***es solution smells like mol***es. Even worse, once the solution starts to ferment, it will smell even more. I've tried using chlorine bleach to prevent fermentation and mold, but was unsuccessful. It's possible that the bleach evaporated out. I've read that people consider the fermentation process necessary for the process to work good, but I doubt that's the case. It will likely increase the acid level of the mix, but I expect the regular solution to still be very effective regardless. I may try the chemical that winemakers use to prevent fermentation in wines and see if that is effective.

Also, the parts will come out of the process with no protection from future rust, and the oxidation will commence again immediately. You must be prepared to clean the mol***es from the parts, and protect the metal right away, either by painting, oiling, or or other means, otherwise your parts will quickly begin to rust again. I've soaked brake drums, heavy with rust for a couple of months (forgot about them) and after washing them with soap and water, they began to rust even before they were dry. Be ready to protect your parts!

Oh, and your parts must be degreased completely, since the solution does not cut grease, and the grease will prevent the solution from contacting the rust"






BTW....it almost sounds like you and X38 are best mates.......right?

Sheesh....

Rat

 

Mol***es has a lot of phosphorus in it, as told to me by a cane farmer. Of course, phosphoric acid is used as the active ingredient in a lot of propietory rust removers.

And rat bastad is right, keep a lid on it for smell free operation.

 

I don't know ****, but I know what I did,

44 gal drum mixed mol***es 2x5 gal tubs with boiling water then hot water, dropped my block in ( real rusty) and let it go.

Now being I don't know ****, I also figured out that heat is what gets this going. as in everyone told me that on a hot day it start bubbling etc. so being I have tropical fish I had a spare heater. so I droped this down the cam bore into the center of the engine and 4 or 5 days later I had this.

Now first i get into the water jackets with a piece of fencing wire to get out as much as possible. I'm talking hours or work, and compressed air too.

works a treat.

 

I Dunno if your talking to Me, I am trying to ask why a guy wants to wait a Month & have a Big drum of Mol***es in his yard ?

I guess it would be OK if you were just cleaning stuff to clean it, But when i go to build an engine, I need the **** clean NOW not next month.

Also, Ya need to drag it down & have it DeGreased First before you plop it in the Goo.

Sounds & looks like it does a good job, But also sounds like a GIANT process. Take it to get tanked, Bring it home to the Goo, WAIT a month, Clean off the GOO, Take it BACK to the machine shop where they will Tank it again to get off the GOO.

Im just saying, A good Tank & Bake or a trip to the Acid dipper sounds much easier to me.

By the way, You didnt answere the quetsion.. About how much is a Big Can of Mol***es ?

Maybe YOU are looking for an AGGRO Response ??? I dunno.

 

Oxalic acid crystals are great on rust.
Here is a link to a tech thread posted on the UK NSRA forum. Sure seems to work.
http://www.nsra.org.uk/newforum/showthread.php?t=16115

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO........

Not YOU Desoto, I was referring to that other dude who ragged on Mol***es without knowing.

Besides, how couldd I give a fellow Desoto Hemi lover a hard time LOL !

Rat

 

Let's approach this a different way.

Do you believe either shop would allow partially loosened scale to go out the door inside a block they prepped? If the answer is yes, then you shouldn't use that shop regardless of the process. If the answer is no, then maybe you should believe their process works. See what I'm sayin?

Baking is a standard method of removing contaminants from metal. Even rust will bake off if you heat-corrode the surface correctly.

good luck with the project

 

Ok,bull,you seem like apretty level headed guy.I'm new here but not everywhere x38 made himself known to ME in my intro.Calling me an IDIOT,he was my second welcome.Now I know all his buddies too.Having organized a few SNIPE hunts myself, I can spot them right off but they dont hurt people ,physicly or financially ,screwing up 2000.00 worth of old iron just aint funny,Now I love a good joke and laughing is the best medicine.So give you guys the benifit of doubt I checked it out,two machine shops, The best in town,and a rechromer that builds and restores the real old stuff ,were good friends and he has a pile of old flatheads out back,must be a hundred out there,his opinion means a lot to me HE knows acid AND flatheads I got the same answear every where by the PROS that know" WTF"are you kidding me?they'll tell you ,you can rob a bank and get away with it too,DONT BELIEVE IT!!!!!I think I'll take THEIR word for it,heres why,the man wanted to know the BEST way since he'll need to bring it to the machine shop anyways and they prefer to inspect it first ,you be cleaning away tell tail signs that might help them ,so at best its a BAD joke and worst of all your screwing up the mans motor right from the start.so heres the BEST way :take it apart then bring the dirty block to the shop that you pick,let them do it right ,pick it back up and put it together.since this guy is a first timer all I can say is before you do anything go ask the pros for yourself first.SOME of these guys are RETIRED pencil pushers that have nothing better to do than organize snipe hunts . IF its the BEST way how come only ten or twenty guys ever heard of it I think the PROS know best not someone on line ,you know nothing about them.ON the up side I learnd something too and now they know they wont get away with BAD advice I hope I'm clear on WHY it s BAD advice.I cant tell if it works or not but as you see it doesn't even matter.However I got a great recipe for hard candy ,mol***es ,water ,heat. Its been fun, "brain" deadbodyman LOL.......see ya in the funny pages

 

Give it a good scrub at home and then hot tank, it should be fine!

 

Wow, at first I thought this was a joke of somekind. Now, I'm not so sure. Dude, I have no idea who X38 is, I've never met the man, and I've not had any correspondance with him. But I can tell you, mol***es works wonders.

 

scrub inside ,outside? Fine for what?I dont understand

 

Machine shops don't make any money off of do-it-yourselfers.

Seriously deadbodyman, give it a shot on a rusted bolt or something. Toss it in an old ****er container with some mol***es and see what happens. It really does - freaked my **** right out!

Seriously - try it! Surely you can come up with a rusted bolt, and maybe raid the pantry for some mol***es...

~Jason

 

to de-scale the water jackets or coolant p***ages: my post 11-30-2008. Re: descaling an engine block.
<O
My Detroit Diesel Engines service manual recommends a de-scaling mix of 1/3 muriatic acid and 2/3 water with 1/2 pound oxalic acid powder added. Based on this, about five years ago I mixed up a batch of 1/2 gallon muriatic acid / 1 gallon water / 10 oz. oxalic acid powder and used it to de-scale some diesel coolant system stuff. It worked great. The acid mix will dissolve lime and scale in about a minute, then the parts should be flushed thoroughly with clean hot water. I saved the brew in a 5 gallon white fuel jug and use it for de-scaling other parts once in a while, even plumbing fittings. But everything must be flushed with water after the acid. <O
<O
My experience with hot-tanking is that it works great, but it eats the cam bearings so you’ll need to replace them. Pull out oil galley plugs to hot-tank, and don’t forget to put the plugs back in. Did that in 1956 – couldn’t get any oil pressure.<O

 

I got Ya ...

But im still in the dark of the wait period of Mole-***'s

I just cant wait that long when im on a roll

 

Wow! What a THREAD!

Now, even RatBastad uses a TWO-stage process for heads & blocks, wow.

First Hot-Tank (I take that to mean caustic soda?).

THEN, ONE MONTH in MOL***ES? **** this one leaves me with questions, Rat, buddy!

How's it work? First, where the hell does naybody get that much mol***es? Then, just what does the mol***es DO inside all the internal jackets & stuff where nobody buy SuperMan can SEE?

I'm not joking here.

THANKS in advance for your thoughts. You're a fellow 291-lover, like me. I know you wouldn't steer me wrong!!! -- Jimi'sHemi291

 

Bottom line is they all work.

choose yer poison.

Mol***es smells rad, i actually like it! you buy it at a horse feed supplier, about a buck a litre.

and yes, I have done two flatheads in Mol***es and it was pretty amazing..that said the ****ing machinist I used has charged me TWICE for hot tanking at $100.00 a go! $200!!needless to say Im arguing the bill.

 

LowSquire, TANKS (er, THANKS -- little joke) !!!

Man, when I HEARD about MOLASES, I thought, fer carz???????????

Now, I'm 'bout CONVINCED!!! Hell uv-a low-budget way to GO!!!

Our brothers in AUS/NZ sure love their machinery, too! I JUST LEARNED A PRACTICAL WAY TO GO HERE, BROTHER!!!

Now, I won't worry so much about buying a motor that turns hard, by hand . . . OR I don't know its "family history."

THANKS a TON, LowSquire !!!

 

Mix mol***es about 5:1 with water. Phosphorous is the active ingredient. And keep a lid on it for the smell, but don't seal it too tight as it will ferment a bit and give off gas, especially if it's in the sun. Be patient, it's cheap, effective, but slow.

 

i did a 'A' block in mol***es, worked a treat, just make sure you wash it off well coz it smells............bad

 

deadbodyman got a point when i heard mollasis first thing i thought of was a sugared engine

 

Or s "sweeet" one haha !!

Rat