Hi guys, just wanted to ask a quick question.

Its regarding my AE .15X, but its more of a 'general engine maintenance' thing.

When I first broke in my engine with 10%, I didn't have any ARO, so I just tore it apart and dried all the fluids with a clean cloth.

At one point, I had forgotten about it and my engine's crankshaft and rear plate had some rust build up.

At that point, I started running ARO instead of the engine-breakdown procedures I usually did.

Its maintained the same volume of rust/whatever it is on the back of the crankshaft and on the crank backplate.

Now I'm wondering, could I still clean this up, or is it too late and I'd need to purchase a new crank and backplate? The other side of the crankshaft is clean, I just didn't want to take the whole thing apart for the pics.

Pics of crank only:





Thanks in advance for the replies.

You can wipe the rust from the crank, its the bearings that have the most problems with rust. Adding some afterrun oil is better than nothing but it takes a good flushing to do much good. Engine flushing is messy and a little work, thats probably why almost nobody does it.

There is nothing you can do about the rust that is on your crank.
I would leave it and run the engine as is.
You can check the bearings by turning the engine over by hand (slowly) and feel for
any grinding or harshness as you rotate the crankshaft. If it turns smoothly, then
most likely your bearings are okay. If not then the bearings need to be replaced.

Remember to run your engine with fuel that has some castor oil in it, as this ensures that
the bearings and crank will get a proper COATING of oil.
Also run the engine dry of fuel at the end of they flying day, and adequately lubricate the engine with after-run oil.

Ryan

Well, I'll be in the process of porting and polishing my engine's crankshaft, conrod, and sleeve soon, so wouldn't that process also help remove the corrosion from my engine?

I have inserted the crank through the bearings from the outside of the engine and spun it slowly by hand. As far as I can tell, by bearings are still rotating smoothly and with no friction/binding.

All I ever do is to disconnect the fuel line from the carb, lite up the plug and then run the engine on my electrical starter till it stops firing. Have never had problems with rust.

Hey Red

Polishing the crank will remove the rust.

Since the crank-case is made from aluminum it can not rust, but rather
it can oxidize and corrode, the polishing will help to remove this also.

Let us know how the porting and polishing works out for you, and if you notice any performance gains.

I cant see where some polishing would hurt anything. I would however be very careful with any porting you do, as
removing even a small amount of material from inside the crank-case or the ports could hurt
the performance.

Ryan

In the days when I was running some very high nitro fuels I would always run a final tank of ZERO % nitro fuel through the engine to flush out the nitro residues before giving it a squirt of after run oil. The engines seemed to last well and I got little or no corrosion.