Does anybody have some good tips to clean engines, i have an engine, with baked on oil/fuel , and need it shifting!
any ideas are welcome

not sure of the terminology/language..but get an old crock pot (ceramic electric cooker) and put antifreeze in it ..on low/med setting place the engine or parts in it and wait for 1/2 a day, may still need some scrubbing but that should be it.........and never use the crock pot to eat of again...Rog

G'day mate,
Glycol (antifreeze) in an OLD crockpot, strip engine, & cover with glycol, crockpot on low heat, for 24 hours, will clean up nicely. Don't put anything in the crockpot that has rubber on it, gaskets & so on.
& NEVER EVER USE crockpot for cooking food ever again, glycol is POISONOUS & will kill.
Also the fumes are dangerous too, so use in well ventilated area.

And use synthetic oil, in your fuel & the problem goes away. That will get em goin!!!!!

Mentioned in the engine column in Model Aviation this month are two new products that reportedly work very well.

They are Dawn Power Dissolver and Demon-Clean.

Good luck,

Phil

I was cleaning my engine after a crash a while back, my Venus 40 had my new OS 50 on board. I had been having problems with take off, the plane would suddenly veer to the right. I was not sure why, but it did. On the last flight, it veered right but more severely than before and I over-reacted and slightly panic'ed. Yanked on the aileron rather than the rudder.. a little dislexic I guess.. and flipped it over at 3 feet and full throttle, and that was that.

The engine was full of sand and dirt, so I removed it, checked it out, wiped it down and washed it with water. I flushed the engine with fuel (took off the back plate and flushed it with about a half gallon of fuel) then for some reason, I hit it with Windex. The engine came out bright and shiny with no brown fuel residue. Now, I had been using a fuel with turbine oil (S&W Hi-Rev 15% nitro) so the residue may only have been a stain that would come right off under the circumstances, but it cleaned up very nicely.

But the Ethelene Glycol bath sounds like a good, sound solution to me.

DS.

I agree with Phlip. A few months ago in Model Airplane News, Dawn Power Dissolver was reviewed. A member of a local club tried it and said it works great and was quick and easy.

I have not tried it so I am only repeating what I heard. He said all he did was spray it on, wait a little bit, then brushed the engine with an old toothbrush and the varnish came right off. He tested it on a 20+ year old Fox .35 engine and the picture he showed makes the engine look like new - all bright and shiny. No long wait, no taking the engine apart, no dangerous fumes, etc.

I think I would rather do that than the crockpot/antifreeze method, but I'm basically lazy...

Thanx for the great ideas, . I dont think i will be doing the anti freeze crock pot method, as this might upset the other house members [sm=thumbs_down.gif]. The Dawn Power Dissolver sounds like a good bet, is it a R/C or Household cleaner ?,
I have not heard of Dawn Power Dissolver, but i am in the UK so it might not be available here.
The engine i have is a Super Tigre serie X .61 rear exhaust , when it is clean i will use it as soon as i can find out the settings for the carb , and which plug and fuel to use , i have a thread for this subject but have had no luck yet[&o]
keep the cleaning ideas coming !!
Rick

It's household. Here's a website that explains what it is: http://www.homemadesimple.com/sites/...issolver.shtml and here is a snippet from that site:

Forget scrubbing. Forget soaking. Dawn Power Dissolver removes burnt-on, baked-on food and grease so you don't have to! And it's more than a powerful grease-fighter. With repeated use, this revolutionary product will help keep your favorite cookware and dishes looking like new again. Just spray it on and let the power foam go to work.

I don't know if it's available in your area, but you can get it online if that's an option for you. Details on the website.

Rick.. this is the web site for the Dawn Power Dissolver. It looks like it is a spray on oven cleaner type of stuff. Perhaps Tesco has this??

DS

http://www.homemadesimple.com/sites/...issolver.shtml

RW beat me to the punch..

You got lots of help here!

DS.

Dawn Power Dissolver ? cant find it here in the UK , but I will look in Tesco when i do my shopping (for manly cleaning supplies) lol, i am sure they will have something that works ? if not you will see the shine on my cookware from the USA

Where is Kent with reference to London? I'm headed out that way in March and can bring a bottle along in my checked baggage if you like.

DS.

Sittingbourne in Kent, it`s east of London about 50 miles depending on where in London you will be.
Dawn Power Dissolver is it a Procter And Gamble product? as i have been searching the UK site and the dont seem to have it so maybe its called someting else here.
Thank you for the kind offer, hopefully i will have the engine clean by March ??
Rick

Yes I think it is a P&G product because the website has the P&G name on the bottom of it.

No problem. I work for BAE Systems, and travel to Raytheon Systems in Harlow often. If you can't find it, or a similar product, then when I head over, I will simply pack a bottle or two in my checked baggage and let you know when I will be there. I normally fly with the RC club in Harlow... good bunch of guys.

DS.

Harlow is in Essex the county next to Kent, I will have to come and meet you if i have time, and not working (Abbott Laboratories)
and part time two stroke motorcycle tuner/racer.
I have emailed P&G i hope they can help me out.
I never realized this oil got so sticky i think this engine was run on a fuel and syrup mix [&:]

Yeah, the problem is that the engine gets so hot that the oil that does seep out will eventually bake right on the outside surface. In some situations and turn that ugly yellow color. I believe it will also do that inside the cylinder head.

And, of course, as Alan said, if you can find it, fuel with synthetic oil does the trick, won't burn on the sides like the castor oil mix does.

There is a big chemical plant across from the Raytheon plant in Harlow, a pharmaceutical plant, can't remember the name off hand, but I pass it every day on the way to the plant from the hotel when I'm out that way. My girlfriend, Julie, and I have taken a cruise out of Southampton on P&O. Very VERY nice!! Stayed at the DeVere right by the docks for a couple days after the cruise.

DS

Just got an email from Procter And Gamble, They do not supply Dawn Power Dissolver here, YET , so i will keep looking around Tesco, all i need is the ingredients and make my own RICK`S POWER DISSOLVER for grubby R/C engine`s and not pots and pans.
if you have the ingredients can you let me know , so i can compare them with other cleaners.
The engine has now been sprayed with Cillit BANG Power Cleaner, universal degreaser , ingredients <5% non-ionic surfacents. contains perfume , well if it dont clean it ,it will smell nice lol

I have NOT had the great results others are reporting for the Power Disolver. It's a poor or weak cleaner that takes a lot of time and patients to use. I even tried it on some kitchen pans (which is it's intended use) with the same poor results. Yesterday i used it on a dirty oven window with again poor results. I finally used a rasor blade to clean it. People reporting good results must be using it on minor problems.

If you can't find this product for yourself don't go out of your way and don't feel you are missing something.

Thanks for that report, well the Cillit BANG i tried, I left it overnight and that did not work too well , only shifted some light staining (it did smell nice too, lol) so i am going to have to try something else from the spermarket or use autosol, and then get the buffer on to it ? mmmm a bit too tricky on a small engine, there has to be an easier way ?
Rick

Here is what I heard of doing and then I tried it. It worked great! Boil a pot of water, pour it in a container that you will never use for food, put some dish powder soap (any kind) and drop your engine in it and let soak awhile. I did this twice and then dried it and ran some fuel through it to get the water out. After that I started the engine up and ran another tank of fuel in it. And would you believe that it actually seemed to run better than before? Oh, by the way, this engine was five years old with plenty of use on it. I don't think you would regret it if you tried it.

Sugarfoot

Just a note on Dawn Power Dissolver. I sprayed it on the muffler of my OS 61 FX muffler. It left black spots all over the muffler. I tried removing the spots with steel wool and the wire brush that comes with a Dremel set. The spots are still there. Very unsightly...

Yes certain things do effect aluminium in different ways as i found out from using sugarfoot`s method, which did clean all the gunge and gunk off, but now i have a matt black engine, which i think looks better than the silver colour most engines are! (thanx sugarfoot and everybody else for the suggestions)
That seems to be that problem sorted, now i need to find out what plug i need for an inverted mounted engine plus what size triple blade to use ??
Rick[sm=confused.gif]