Im all about doing stuff on the cheap, but by the time you rig up some kind of barrel heater buy some type of chemical, just take it to a machine shop and let them worry about the mess, your probably goin have to take it to a machine shop anyway to have it magnafluxed or pressure tested, just my opinion.
what are you gonna do if it needs a rebore, try to make your own boring bar? when i take things to my machine shop, he checks it out before he cleans it to even make sure its useale, and if its not, no charge, and if i get machine work done, usually the cost of that eats up any hot tanking that is done..........so, being a do it yourselfer on some things don`t really pay off.......this being one of them....
I'm with the guy who would spend 30 bucks having the machine shop go it. You're sure to use 15 in propane and another 15 in rags or towels and another 20 throwing all your clothes away and about 12 thousand rebuilding the shop after the fire and 2 grand re carpeting the house.
Way back in the late 60s early 70s I worked in a engine rebuild shop and we used Oakite Dynadet to hot tank blocks and heads. This is some bad stuff as it completly stripped all the carbon from heads and all the paint and rust from blocks. It was heated to 180 deg. You cannot put aluminum or cam bearings in this stuff. Way back then when we cleaned out the hot tank we just dumped it all down the storm drain in the back alley. http://www.surfacefinishing.com/product.mvc/Dynadet-0001
i have about 6 or more engines to do, some are old motors that have been outside for 30 years, some are under cover but all gunked up, the gunked up one i'll power wash off first, then i have some mol***es and i'm going to try that in a barrel, the whole setup will cost me about $20. i have my own boreing machine.
$35 dollars here to have an engine hot tanked. No propane, burners, tank of ****, cleaning up all of the mess, etc.... Spend the money and leave them the mess. In the long run, you will be ahead.
Do you need them all cleaned like right now? Why wouldn't you just have one cleaned as you were going to start rebuilding it or whatever you are going to do with it.
Man I wish I had a machine shop that worked as cheap as y'all do! I'm here in Ohio right now, locally it averaged $50 to clean a pair of heads, and in socal the place i looked at was $70 to clean a block. That doesn't include rotating ***embly or timing cover, oil pan, valve covers, manifold(s), etc Maybe you guys also have a truck and time during the day to haul greasy old blocks to the machine shop, wait for them to finally do it, go back and pick it up and hope you got the right block back and they didn't drop it on the floor and listen to them ***** about you only getting blocks cleaned there and not worked on! I guess if I only needed one motor done every few years it might be worth it to take it someplace, but I have lots of greasy **** I'd like to throw in a tank plus I just don't want the headache of dealing with a machine shop any more than I absolutely have to. Just my 2 cents, I'm renting a garage and I'm cheap, so I'll be degreasing blocks at the .25 cent car wash
Thanks for all the suggestions. I don't know where AAFD lives but around here on Long Island $30.00 dollars won't even get me through the door of the machine shop. The best price I got was $145.00 to hot tank the block and install the cam bearings. Of course I have to supply the bearings. It doesn't sound too bad but I still think I can do better myself. So far I like the idea of the "blue Hurricane" product that is inexpensive and bio. safe, as a bonus I'll be able to clean other engine parts. I will order it tomorrow and hopefully get it by next week-end. That will give me time to pick-up a ridge reamer so I can strip the motor completely. Anyone know how to make a ridge reamer? Ha Ha
You don't need a ridge reamer. If the block is worn that bad it needs to be bored anyway. If it is worn that bad so are the pistons. The ring grooves on the pistons get worn and the rings won't seal. So bore it and put new pistons in it. No need to ream the ridge out of it.
Actually, heated antifreeze does best in a crock pot, dedicated to aluminum, pot metal, and non-ferrous metals. It WILL work on cast iron, but its properties (glycol) make it extremely lethal for animals (and other mammals) My jerk neighbor drained the coolant out of his Chevy last year, and his cats got into it. They went into siezure, all 3 of 'em died. it was ghastly.
We use Green Unikleen at work in our hot tanks and parts cleaner tanks. Works very good, non toxic, biodegradable. Designed to be used heated. Best to rinse with clear water if mixed too strong.
Update: I pussied out and brought the block to the machine shop. It's cracked real bad in the lifter valley. I called a good friend who happened to have a 60-62 390. I stripped it down brought in to the machine shop and I am waiting to find out if this is a useable block. I am trying to get this thing together for the Jalopy Showdown in York Springs PA this May 21st
Try some of Ol' Crusty's chili, that **** will clean anything out...good thread, lots of good information here.
You can neutralize the Sodium Hydroxide using Muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) or by bubbling carbon dioxide through the mix. I would advise against the Muriatic acid, as the reaction is exothermic, meaning heat producing, and violent. The advantage is the lye is converted into mundane sodium chloride. Using the carbon dioxide reaction you can get sodium carbonate, which is only moderately nasty.
I read all the comments above the "agent orange" qualities of sodium hydroxide with amu*****t. How the world has changed. When I was a youngster in the 1950's a case of dynamite could be purchased over the counter, no questions asked, just a routine transaction. Electrical dynamite caps and carbide for your head lamp, of course completed the purchase. You were ready to go to work. These coal miners would walk to our farm to take a short cut to enter the mine through "coal holes" which were simply roof collapses near the outcrop. What a set of cojones it took to enter a mine through a roof collapse, men were a bunch of tough mothers. Entering the mine this way put the miner nearer his work station rather than walk a mile or two if entering at the mine's heading. As kids we would gently heat dynamite sticks to extract drops of nitroglycerin. A couple of drops on grandpaps anvil struck with a sledgehammer sent the sledge through to roof of the machine shed. Back to sodium hydroxide. Dangerous, granted, but I never remember any caution whatsoever when my mother cleared a sink drain with lye. Nobody ever thought a thing about it. Did you know that sodium hydroxide (lye, NaOH, etc) is widely employed in the food processing industry. Cornmeal, grits, polenta, masa is processed with lye, as well as olives. Lye also finds use in removing skins and outer coverings from many fruits and vegetables. Matter of fact I have a bottle of food grade lye right here that I used to make authentic New York City style bagels (I didn't really like the bagels as they tasted just like a pretzel which also get their hard shiny tasty covering from a dip into a lye solution. The best way to boil out an engine block in lye is set a 55 gallon steel barrel atop concrete blocks then build a wood fire (coal fire actually works better) underneath, the fire can be regulated with an old piece of tin roofing on top the fire if it gets boils too hard. Disposal, contrary to contemporary opinion lye being highly chemically reactive breaks down quick in the environment. I know places where it was simply dumped out onto the ground tears ago, the gr*** (and weeds) grow as vigorously there as anywhere else. The government is wussifying the population, heck 16oz softdrinks are being banned, something as agent orange as drain cleaner certainly ranks up there as the worst of the worst. All the while railroad tankcar after tankcar roll into that industrial plant just down the road from you. Did I ever tell you how the township sprayed used motor oil on dirt roads to keep the dust down? The rainbow trout in nearby streams were numerous and healthy. Oh, did I ever tell you about recycling? Only 5% of the waste in landfills is residential trash, the other 95% is commercial and industrial waste (including lots of filter pressed excrement from sewage treatment plants). So if you recycle 100% of your waste it could only improve the environment by 5%. BUT, it's just a "feel good" issue, we can beat our collective chests in a wild demonstration of just how green we are.
Oakite is some nasty strong ****. we used to use it in the company i'm with. It would burn you quick, and also the dust from it would irritate you nose and eyes real bad.
Dugydog, what they charge you to tank that block. It cost a lot more than $30 to tank a block around here. Just curious. Ken
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