How do you guys clean engine parts prior to assembly?

I know thats a dumb question for a lot of you, but it's something I've been thinking about prior to assembling my stuff.

I know to keep them covered until I need them but what if freshly ground journals, or your bearings get some dust/grime on them what do you use?

What kind of spray, what type of cloth? I am sure you want something lint free?

 

I use a lot of brake cleaner around the shop. It leaves no residue including oil, so if it is something that rusts easily you won't want to leave it dry for long upon after cleaning.

 

Lacquer thinner is like holy water in my shop. If lacquer thinner won't take it off then its not coming off. It cleans very well, leaves no residue, and dries quick. It's also supposed to make your sperm swim in circles so that's a plus! Seriously though the stuff is awesome.

 

Preasure wash with hot soapy water after coming out of a parts cleaner that has clean fluid(not one you wash a rear end out in)followed by Lacquer thinner.....there is no such thing as too clean!! My assembly room benches and tools are as close to an operating room as a machine shop can get.

Tony

 

i use 97% isopropyl alcohol. works really well and is highly evaporative

 

wire brush with a little brakleen

 

Agreed^^^

 

Gas, paint thinner, simple green, engine degreaser, whatever I have available but the truth is nothing beats good old fashioned elbow grease.
By the way, mineral spirits is excellent for cleaning tools, shop light, tool box, etc........etc...........and it doesn't harm any plastic or paint (I hate to leave things full of grease and dirty)

 

Last time I was home, I cleaned two sets of aluminum flathead heads with break cleaner, carb cleaner and a small brass wire brush. Worked for me. Also do not clean them in your kitchen sink if you want the wife to be happy.

 

Not me I throw everything on the floor and when I am close to being done I sweep up and throw everything left over in the oil pan.

Tony is correct here, I either use Lacquer thinner or kerosene for my final wipe before I lube it and put it together. Lacquer thinner being the prefered.

Anything comming back from the machinist gets washed down with Tide and a power washer way before the assembly process can even be considered.

Clean, clean, clean. The clean somemore.

 

Hot soapy water soft brush or rag blow dry lube and assemble paint fire that mother up and burn a tire or throw a rod witch ever happens first.

 

I think some of you might have misunderstood me, I mean prior to assembly...not heavy dirty grease.

I ALWAYS have laquer thinner on hand for my wood shop. It is the good stuff too, the kind that eats right through anything plastic lol. Is there a specific cloth type to use, or just anything that is lint free?

 

I use either carb cleaner or lacquer thinner. An old timer showed me the trick of cleaning crank journals with a (new!) sanitary napkin and some thinner. I've used lint-free shop wipes and cloth baby diapers. I always drape off the assembly area with old bed sheets, including the ceiling.

Bob

 

I dont think lint free is all that important because you can blow that shit off with a blow gun.

 

I think it all depends on what works for you and what you usually have on hand.

Along with using the above mentioned cleaning products I use a small bore brush to clean the oil passages in cranks before assembling the engines. I've found a lot of crud in both used cranks and ones that just came back from the machine shop. Best advise I can give is don't assume that the machine shop has totally cleaned anything and clean and inspect it yourself.

I don't have room for a clean room but that is one thing that is on my wish list for a shop. I do have a stainless steel topped work bench that gets cleaned off and scrubbed down before I assemble engine parts on it.

 

If I machine one or have it machined it always gets hot tanked and cleaned before it leaves the machins shop.

You cannot be too clean when assembling an engine or transmission or rear end. The Ol' man kept white cotton gloves in his shop all the time. If an engine was ready for assembly you could put the gloves on and wipe or touch any surface, if the glove came back dirty the engine was not ready for assembly. Maybe that is a little anal but it is how a lot of us learned to build and engine.

A lot of shops like Goatroper02s and others on this board have a clean room, all it is for is fit up and final assembly.

 

lacquer thinner

 

That kind of depends on how much actual mechanical work you intend to do. If you plan on building and engine once in a while it is wasted space you can give your workbench area a good cleaning before you assemble, if it is something that you do on a regular basis then a clean room is a good idea.

I have assembled engines for my own personal use in my living room a lot. It has to be really clean before you ever start and you need to stay really clean if you are going to build one in the house. Good practice I suppose.

 

one of our customers who builds racing engines uses carb cleaner on all the parts just prior to final assembly. they use a lot...usually gets 20 cases at a time about every 2-3 months

http://sputsengines.com/index.html

 

I learned the same way beaner. I would scrub stuff till my fingers bled and he would still fine a place I missed. Try and get some kid to clean something for you now. I dont think there is any passion or pride in workmanship any more. I am trying to teach my sons but thay just think Iam an asshole. (witch I probably am)

 

I can see my wife's face now!!!!

 

Saltflats,
It is a sign of the times. You have to remember when you and I were young (no offense if you are young please) we had a televison that got 3 channels if we lived near a big city. We played army with a stick and anything that you could get in or under was a fort.

Our youth have had too many distractions or have too many distractions. Some of them overcome it and for whatever reason they end up here. I am going to bet that they don't fit in anywhere else.

I have to laugh, my oldest grandaughter did a lot of her growing up around me. Although her grandmother taught her to play dumb around cars sometimes she just can't help herself. The other day she called and said that her step dad does not know how to bleed brakes and she had to teach him. She said, "Granpa, he is so dumb he wanted me to pump the brakes and his brake thingy was empty. I told him, "You have to put brake fluid in it first or you will get air in the lines. You donot want air in the lines."" I just told her that men don't learn tnat sort of thing any more. What else could I say?

Sometimes she makes me so proud.

I got a real slick engine in the basement that I was getting ready to move up to the garage to assemble. The missus said, "get it cleaned up then move it into the house, its too cold and dirty in the garage." You have to realize that she was raised by a rodder and that we have known each other since we were children.

I had to heat some bearings to slip them on a differential last fall. I had them on a hot plate in the garage with an old pot turned over on top of them. She walked out to see how we were doing with the rearend and bring us some iced tea. She walked over and lifted the pot, then shook her head and went into the house. Came back with a really old cookie sheet and grabbed the bearings. I went in the house just as she was slipping them into the oven.

She's a trooper.

 

I like that the brake thingy. Reminds me of a saying my dad had when he would see someone fucking up. Quote, he must have went to collage you dont get that dumb in high school.

 

To the missus everything is a little round circle thing. Makes you think when she says something like that.

She plays dumb, I am not sure why she does that with me. I know better.

 

As long as you have no objections, I would like to steal your dad's quote for my signature line. Giving him full credit of course!

 

I was referring to prier to assembly, I'm not talking about the degreasing of a core engine before machine work starts.

Our Process starts after all machine work is done, and after parts of been cleaned of chips and cutting lubes In the spray cabinet.

 

Any engine block (and other parts..) requires possibly 40 man hours to get ready for assembly. Chasing threads, blowing out every imagineable passage, nook and cranny.

We used to use hot soapy water and gun cleaning brushes for the bulk of it. When the suds coming out were as clean as the suds going in, we were close to being done.

Bob

 

Yep.

Used to be a machine shop here in town that would assemble your lower end for ya if they did the machine work. 35 bucks was what they wanted. No way that they could afford to do that if they did it right.

 

Go for it Isky his name is Julius J Schrader. He said he was a batterd basterd of Bastone. Thats another story.