Anyone known what you can use to get the brown burnt engine fuel and oil gunk off the engines ?

Jason

Do a search on that subject and you will get plenty of info. Alot of people say that cooking them in a crock pot with anti-freeze works good...

Ditto

There are also some commercialized engine cleaners like Cheveron and Z-best but I am not sure how they compare to antifreeze. I have a bottle coming of Cheveron my way and will let you know how good it is................

Well I had heard of Z Best, but can't find any at my LHS.

Just wondering what works best...............

Those comercial cleaners don't do much.I have found that anti=freeze works great for me. I use rv anti-freeze, non-toxic, and do not set too high[ low works as good as any]. You don't have to disassemble the engine. I just take off all the covers,and carb-manifold. Wash it out with warm water after and run it to get lubracation through it again.

The Z-best worked good for me for about 4 or 5 engines then it jelled with about 1/4 of the can left and did not work well at all. This stuff is kind of pricey if I remember it was about $8 for a can that held about 1 pint. I need to come up with a crock pot and try the anti-freeze method, I have heard repeatedly it works wonders. Remember if they don't look good they won't fly! Hmmmm maybe that's my problem.

Anti freeze, on low or med, works the best. Do a search on Anti freeze:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/search.php...der=descending

Stick with low heat. The test engine I cooked on 'high" came out clean but lost the shine on all the external aluminum parts. Its some sort of deposit that doesn't come off.

Another tip: remove plastic bits bfore cooking the engine! When heated some types of plastic release (something nasty) which coats everything in the pot. Plastic throttle arms are the main culprits here.

Other than those two gotchas the procedure is quite simple. Fill the pot with antifreeze, set to low heat, drop in the engine parts. Come back in a 10+ hours, remove the parts. Flush out the remaining antifreeze with water, oil, assemble and run briefly. Done!

try hi tec perfect engine cleaner, found this at my local hobby shop and it did wonders on cleaning engines, a word of caution, do not leave it in more that half an hour since it also slowly etches away at the materials. the best way to clean an engine i have found is to take it all apart, only put the parts that you want to be cleaned, meaning only the outside parts, no bearings or seals, even if they say it's ok, because most of the time it is not.

i have seen a guy at the field have an engine for 5 years, with not a sign of dirt anywhere. what he does is after flying for the day, spray his engine with fantastic, then rinse with lots of water, and it's clean.

GB

What is the key ingredient in anti-feeze that cleans the engine ? I do not think it is the main content which is ethylene glycol. Can it be some anti-corrosion additive ? BTW, do you guys mix antifreeze with water in the crock pot ? What ratio ? ............

I've used it 50/50 with water and it worked well overnight on low with a pretty cruddy .46fx. Rinsed it off, fueled it up, ran it at fast idle for a couple of minutes and away we went!.

Just to make sure I'm on the right track, since my English isn't very good, I'm not sure what a crok pot is.
Is it the appliance my wife uses to cook french fries?

Cowboy,
No, the thing your wife uses for french fries is a deep fryer. This gets way too hot! A crock pot is a slow cooker. They generally have 2 or 3 heat settings but generally don't get anywhere near as hot as a deep fryer. And remember, you can't just borrow your wifes cooking stuff because the antifreeze will permanently poison it. Once used for engine cleaning, it cannot be used again for cooking. Unless your not overly fond of your wife...

Just kidding, just kidding!

Thanks Big Phil for the advice.

You probably saved me from buying the wrong appliance. I knew that I couldn't use the appliance for cooking after I'd put antifreeze in it but I'll ask an English friend what is a crock pot in French now that I know that it's not a deep fryer.
I can't figure out yet exactly what it is cause I don't cook very often and my wife's English is worst than mine.

You're welcome Cowboy! You can look here http://www.crockpot.com/ for a description of crock pots. Generally they have a ceramic container or "crock" that fits inside the heating portion of the appliance. Hence the name. Good luck.

I went to Pep Boys and bought a can of Aircraft Remover. No kidding that is the real name of it and it cost about $5.00 for a 18oz can. On old engines you'll probably have to use it twice and leave it on for about 30 minutes. Do use rubber gloves!

Does aircraft remover oxidize the aluminum head?

It doe's not oxidize the aluminum head, in fact it did not dull the shiny finish on my Irvine .53. I leave it on a real dirty engine for about 30 minutes then scrub with an old tooth brush then wipe off and rinse with water.

Great I will try it thanks.

I'm with Flytime 56,used Perfect Engine Cleaner from my lhs,was pleased with results.
Have a goodun,John.

i soaked mine in RC fuel and with a small brass brush they cleaned up good, i would recomend any of the household cleaners, some of the chemicals can do harm to the aluminum, i have seen it happen.... DO NOT SOAK YOUR O"RINGS IN FUEL.. they will expand big time

Not everybody has access to a ultra sonic cleaner like I do. I work in electronics manufacturing and have always had access to these wonderful inventions. The small ones work great for engines, 1 gallon size or whatever. I mix up all kinds of cleaners, whatever is handy (yes it could be dangerous, but I don't breathe or drink the stuff and so far nothing has blown up on me!) soak your engine in the cleaner tank while the ultra sonics help break up the gunk inside and out. Works better than anything you could imagine. A heated tank is even better, heat to around 140-150 deg. Just do this in a large area, well ventilated or outside.....