I have an ASP 1.08 that has been on the shelf for several years and is frozen up. Rather than force it, what is a good choice of solvents to soak it in for a week before working on it. closest thing to kerosene I can find is lamp oil. I also thought of mineral spirits.

Hi!
It's simple! No solvent will!
You have to take it apart because the ballbearings need replacement. If it wasn't for them you could warm the engine and everything would be just fine. Well if its ringed engine you must even then check the ring so that no gummed up castor oil is preventing it from moving freely.
I use aceton when to clean parts after I have disassemble the engine.

Regards!
Jan K

Try soaking it alcohol fuel. You may also try heating it up with a heat gun. The engine is probably gummed up from old Castor oil residue. The Castor will soften with heat. The alcohol will also dissolve the Castor but takes a long time. I would take the back cover off when soaking to make sure everything is well submerged.

The bearings may be bad but may also be good. Get it loosen up first. Seals may also be bad especially orings like found on needle valves and around carb intakes.

Take your time.

Cheers,

Chip

Drop it in a container of fresh (green ) anti-freeze / coolant...(coffee can maybe? )
There have been numerous threads about cleaning engines in a crockpot full 'o anti-freeze...

You don't nessessarily have to heat it up though. If you're willing to let it soak a week or so, and the a-f / coolant has rust inhibitors, etc. that will loosen rusted bearings and varnish...

It really does work better though if you heat it...

I tried the "heat it in the oven" method for a Moki that had been on the shelf for a year, and it loosened up but froze again when it cooled. Then I took off the backplace and squirted in a bunch of WD-40--also in the carburetor. To my surprise, it loosened up and stayed loose.
John Agnew

I remember something about the antifreeze thing. I will find an old cooking pot and try that. I have a side burner on my gas grill I could use to boil it. walmart here I proceed.

Hi!
But...The bearings must be changed anyway! Just because you can turn the crank doesn't mean the ballbearings turn. I have seen many cranks that just slips on the inner surface of the ball bearing.
Changing ballbearings is so easy and is more or less mandatory if you want an engine to perform at its best. But if you are only looking for the engine to run and don't want it to run good ...then just don't bother....just heat it.

Watch out though...anti freeze is flammable!

And...you don't really want to boil it, because usually that darkens the alum...
Just heat it until it just barely starts to emit small wisps of steam when you take the lid off.

I got a 3.5 qt. "slow cooker" with 3 heat settings for 15 bucks.
I start on high until it gets good 'n warm, then turn it down to the "keep warm" setting and leave in over-night...

That proceedure has loosened "frozen" engines that haven't seen the light of day for 20-30 years.

If the bearing make noise, more play or hard points in ballrace, rusted, replace with new ball bearing..

I has some old model diesel engines with ball bearing from 1950 years, never replaced and in still good condition. These engines was stucked of castoroil, heated with heatpistol and used fuel to free up the engine. Then soaked in dieselfuel over night and feel as new engines. No rust cause the castoroil sealed the steel against rust.

Jens Eirik

I found the bearings at boca bearings. $25.95 for the set. they are the same bearings for several brands of 80 to 120 engines. I hope they are not needed. I paid 75.00 for the engine and then read the sale again and found I had purchased a known froze up engine. My bad. I hate to have more in a used engine than a new one.

take them to a bearing shop they can cross the old ones to some peers there good for 30,000 rpm and cost less the 10 bucks each

Give or take a few degrees I was just wondering at what temp. does anit-freeze boil.

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As you probably know well by now, don't get the antifreeze too hot. Some have reported a discoloration of the engine with the temp too high.

Not sure exactly...would depend on also if there's any water diluting it I suppose...
Not under pressure, (as in not in a radiator ) I think it's something around 250? Somebody correct me if I'm wrong...

If I had to estimate a temp. for soaking an engine, I'd say somewhere under 150...probably 120-130 would be close enough...

It will clean an engine at room temp. but it takes longer.

The best way I have found is to just look for wisps of steam just barely forming as you remove the lid off your slow cooker/crockpot...

Or...just hot enough for you to go "eeeooowww"[X(] when you go to pick up an engine out of there without using tongs, or something...

You can also smell it...like a melting candy bar or something...so you should do it in a ventilated area, because you don't want anybody or any pets close by when you're doing this.

Philip,


I would say you should have looked around first...

Paul of [link=http://rc-bearings.com]RC-Bearings[/link], who is a prominent member of this engine forum, would have sold you [link=http://www.mcintoshcentral.com/rc-bearings/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21_34&products_id=114&osCsi d=a24f3b020753c2cc3f3fbf44369039a3]the bearings that you need[/link] for a much farer price of $10.

They could probably even be made by the same manufacturer and are better, being ABEC-3 rated.

Are the fumes combustible.

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I have never heard of antifreeze burning at normal temperatures, but I wouldn't depend upon it not burning. Maybe a chemist or lab tech can fill us in on the info.

Well...
All I know is, back some time ago, (back in the early '80s ) a buddy and I were out cruzin' in his '67 Galaxie 500 convertable...hot summer night...and it over-heats...

It's night-time, and he goes to check the coolant level...takes off the radiator cap...can't see anything, so he whips out his cigarette lighter...

Whooosh![X(]
A jet of white-blue flame shoots straight past his face right to the under-side of the hood!

My guess would be yes, the fumes are flammable...

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Wow. That is the first time that I have ever heard of that happening. You're never too old to learn something new.

Thanks for all the help. I have not purchased any bearings yet as I have not determined if they are bad. I checked rc bearings and the prices are great. Thanks again for all the tips. I am putting a lot of fuel through my fs 70 now so I will want to rebuild it sometime. about 5 gallons so far.

My friend seeked after the problem with coolant leagake around in the engine room in Volvo 450, he saw in the coolant expansion tank with pocket lighter, whooom!!! His hair burned and all was well. Cause there was gasoline in coolant from defect cylinderhead gasket.

Jens Eirik

this sounds like a new source for a cheap hair cut. put some gas in your antifreeze and check it with a lighter. poooooof!!

Ya know, I have wondered over the years if maybe there were gas fumes too, from a less than perfect head gasket...

I'm not going to test the fumes of pure anti-freeze any time soon though...

Question about the anti-freeze soak method... can you just drop the whole engine in there, or do you need to disassemble it first?

I have a couple of 4 stroke engines that need cleaning. They aren't gummed up to the point of not turning over, they will turn, but there is thickish fuel (still liquid) in the carb area and lots of varnish on the outside of the engine/muffler. I would like them to look better and cleaner. I believe they will run as is, but wouldn't mind cleaning up a bit to hopefully make them run better.

I also have several old - OLD - os engines that sat in storage for the last 30 years that are completely gummed up.

I am hoping to take the lazy way out and just drop the whole engine in, but wanted to ask whether or not this would be wise...

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While I agree that replacing the bearings right off the bat is the smart thing to do, I'm cheap, so I usually try to free them up with WD-40 first. Sometimes, if you work them by hand long enough, you can clear them of the dried castor oil and reuse them. Like I said, it is probably smarter to outright replace them, as Jaka suggests.