I've got several old flathead cams and literally a bushel basket full of johnson adjustable lifters. All have been stored in an unheated shed and have gathered alot of surface rust. What is the best way to clean these up? Wire wheel, glass bead blast, walnut blasting, etc.?? Glass beading actually peens the surface a small amount so I wondered if that would affect the surface hardening. I was thinking a soft wire wheel on a grinder would be the best bet. Has anybody done this and know for sure?
why not one of the molasses or similar treatments that people use, you know that won't affect the surface hardening.
I've been wanting to try this proccess on something. http://www3.telus.net/public/aschoepp/electrolyticrust.html
ive done a boatload of stock rebuilds by just cleaning on a wire wheel but i use new lifters. never had any returns. scotchbrite pad might work good also. a lot of people might get uptite about that but they dont have the high loads an ohv engine has
they are probably junk. give the mollasses a try and polish em with some fine emery cloth, but if there is any pitting of the lobes, junk em. unless you have a throw away engine it ain't worth risking a fresh engine to try a pitted cam. the chance of wiping out your cam/lifters goes up greatly.
Give the reverse electrolysis a try. I use it on rusty machine parts a lot. After the thing turns black, polish it with steel wool. Rinse in hot water and use wd40. The iron oxide will be gone but some pitting will remain. The pits are the spots that rusted and left in the electro process. All else will be very clean. Mike...
KIRK!'s Evapo-rust magic rust remover would probably do teh trick quite well. See post for details... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=96069&&showall=1
VINEGAR.... enough said... 5 gallon pail, 4 gallons vinegar, give it 3-4 days.. will be PERFECT... seen it done, hell, look at my carbs!!! well, you arent here, LOL
Way back in the day... My brother and I used to collect old beer cans from dumps -- punch-tops, cone-tops, crowntainers, and so on. We used oxalic acid to knock off the rust. It was recommended by another collector and seemed to work pretty well. It cleaned up the rust and left the paint unharmed. I later read that the stuff can make you grow nodules on your vocal cords. We lost interest in the hobby a few years after that.
If it's JUST surface rust, steel wool should get it done easy enough. I cleaned my flatty cam and lifters up with it and it was pie. For the rougher stuff I used a buffing wheel *wire of course*.
Bugman is right, use Evap-o-rust. I bought some a few weeks ago after learning about it on this board. I got it and di my own little test with it, here are the results. I have since tried it on all kinds of stuff and it's awesome. I swear by it now. Try it, you won't be dissapointed. Matt
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