clemrick, Use the low setting not the high setting on the crock pot. Make sure you use it out side or in the garage not in the house and keep the lid on it as the water will evaporate off. I use a 50/50 mix of water and anti-freeze anyway and I add some water to it as needed. The anti-freeze will not bother the rubber heater or radiator hoses of a car so I suppose you could just put the whole engine in it if you wanted to. I pull the carb off, the backplate, and the head. I don't clean the the glow plug or carb. Make sure you mark the head and the side of the rod if you remove them as you want to put it back together the same way it came apart. On the engines that I have cleaned the sleeve was pined so it could only go back together one way. I some times take a tooth brush to the real gunky parts after about 4-6 hours and most are clean as new after 24 hours. The real baked on crud on 4-stroke mufflers comes right off. If they are not real dirty they will be clean in 12 hours or so. They come out real hot so I normally just shake the parts and wipe them off, assemble the engine and run it. If you were not going to run it you could just give it an oil bath and be fine.
Fred B