Hi, everyone!!

I just purchaced an engine that has a few flights on it. then it was put away for about 5 years. the internals are good and loose. (it runs fine) Here is my question. How do you get the brown baked on gunk off of the out side of the engine. I know it does not affect the perfomance of the engine but I just like things to look nice. If at all possible I do not want to take the motor apart. Thanks for the help every one always comes through.

The only way that I have found to work is an antifreeze bath. I have tried several of the expensive cleaners in the can with the brush in the lid and they were a total waste of money and time.
Do a search and you will find many explanations of the anti-freeze/crockpot method. It works and you can leave the engine assembled if you want. I would take the carb off just to keep foreign particles from getting into places they shouldn't.
Fred

There are a lot of discussions over this method, some thing it's the greatest thing since sliced bread (hmmm, what was the best thing before they learned to slice bread???? ) and others will say that it's a load of bunk. Personally I do this and I think it's great for cleaning an engine. What you will need is anti-freeze that you use in your car and a disposable crock pot. The anti-freeze MUST be the green type of anti-freeze that contains glycol, the other "environmentally safe" anti-freezes won't work. The crock pot much be disposable, meaning that you will NEVER cook food in it again. This is especially important because it could poison somebody eating the food.

To do this cleaning you need to do it in a well ventilated location, not inside your house. The heated anti-freeze will give off toxic fumes so this needs to be done outside. Disassemble your engine and place all of the parts in the crock pot. You need to remove any rubber or paper parts such as gaskets and seals because the antifreeze will eat these away. Now pour in the anti-freeze to cover the parts, you'll need about 1/2" or so over the top of the parts. Now turn on the crock pot and let the parts soak in the pot. How long it takes will depend on how much gunk is on the the parts, but can take up to 12-16 hours or more. Every couple of hours pull a part out (use tongs and protect yourself from burning yourself please) and use a toothbrush (once again, don't ever use it for you teeth again) and see if you can brush away the gunk building up on it. Once you can brush all of the gunk off you're done and go ahead and stop the process. Scrub all the gunk off and then rinse all of the anti-freeze off. Immediately blow all water out of any bearings and put a little bit of 3-in-1 oil or sewing machine oil in the bearings to protect them from rust.

Hope this helps

Ken

I really don't want to take the motor all apart I have never done this with a glow motor. I am not sure if there are torque specs for the head or if the antifreeze will hurt the bearings. by the way the engine is webra 120

As said above my post, you can do the engine complete. But you need to still remove the rubber seals from the engine. These are usually on the carb in most engines. The other disadvantage is that you can't get back into the engine to blow out and lube the bearing afterwards.

Ken

Is this the only way that you can get this clean? there must be some other way??????[&:]

I did it once with a totally froze up engine, wouldn't turn over at all. I boiled it in anti-freeze in a coffee can out back on the side burner of my gas bar-b-q.
In no time it freed the engine up & within an hour or so the thing looked like it was brand new on the outside as well. Never occurred to me what the anti-freeze would do to the rubber seals as Ken mentioned.[&:] Guess I need to replace them all now before I try to use that engine.[:@]

I believe Piper Chuck has another cleaner method using alcohol & the oven. I'll let him explain it as it is his method & I don't want to mis-quote him.

I used to clean the outsides of a complete engine by spraying it with a supermarket cleaner intended for aluminium saucepans but for some reason that stuff's been taken off the shelves (here in Australia anyway). It only took maybe a 30 second soak before rinsing and it worked great. A lot of guys have suggested a carb cleaner but I've never tried that yet.

I have an alternative to the antifreeze method:

1. Get (ask, beg, plead or... steal) a suitable cooking pot to immerse the engine into
2. Fill the pan with water and add 2 or 3 (two or three)tablespoons liquid dishwasher detergent, yes the one used for cleaning pots and pans (Palmolive is a good brand)
3. Bring mixture to a boil in a stove top, keep boiling for 3 - 5 minutes
4. Take pot out of fire and put engine in..... ( i just take teh muffler out and put the engine in seals and everytging)
5. Let it soak for about 20 min to 1 hour as you van handle it
6. Take engine out and clean with a stiff bristle brush (steel or brass ones I think)

VOILA!!! the gunk is gone.

The temperature of the mixture is below the temperature of an operating egine and the detergent is not as hard on o rings and plastic and you can afterwards clean the pot and return it to your significant other

One of the things which increases the value of a used engine is the brown gunk. That means the engine was run with castor oil in the fuel and is thus likely to be a good one. Beware the squeaky clean used engine.[>:] If you can't get the brown gunk off, just consider it value added.

Soak it in "GUNK" brand carburator cleaner and brush off the loose gunk with an old toothbrush.
Plug or remove your carb to avoid getting any loose junk in your fuel ports.

Hi,

I think I have tried all of the methods mentioned (they all work) and many that don't. One easy method is to plug up the openings of the motor with blu-tac and spray with oven cleaning foam. Ensure a good covering and let it sit overnight then scrub with an old tooth brush. You may have to repeat a couple of times but this will improve the appearance markedly.

I still find the crock pot and glycol method the most effective but the oven cleaner works in most cases and is easier

Cheers,

Colin

I did the crock pot/antifreeze method. I am totally impressed. This engine was used and had a good buildup of caster. I let it set in the crock pot for about 12 hours in the garage and it looked like new afterwards. I did not take the engine apart. I did remove the carb and seal and set the engine on it's head. That was the part that was the worst. I did not cover the entire engine as only the top of the engine needed cleaned. The only other difference was I used a Potpourri pot. Basically a small crock pot. It was just big enough fit my .46 in nicly. This way I did not have to use a lot of antifreeze.

Bill

Another vote for the antifreeze bath...it works great!

Hey thanks guys for the tip. My wife did not want to give up her crock pot so I improvised. A metal oil pan (clean) 1 gallon of Antifreeze, and one tukey fryer. works beautiful. Only took 1 1/2 hours.

thanks again

so if I got this right you need to have the anti freeze boiling for some time or just hot to the touch my engines are getting pretty dirty

You don't want the anti-freeze too hot. The low setting on a crock pot is fine.