I tossed a Cox TD 049 engine into the crockpot to clean it along with a Wen Mac 049 car engine. The plastic carb body/housing on the TD dissolved. All I recovered of it was crumbs. [:@]

Yikes!

I strip my engines down to parade rest and remove the plastic before they go into the pot.

There are lots of spare cox parts listed on 3bay, but they certainly aren't getting any cheaper these days.

Further, the anti-freeze solution reportedly can remove anodized colors. If you like the color anodized on your engine, you may do better with another source for cleaning it than the crock-pot method. Of course, if you simmer it too hot, that can make it worse...

Also, the fumes can be harmful to your health - if you do crock-pot an engine, make sure there's plenty of fresh air ventilation.

Final thought, mostly no longer a problem, but some earlier automotive engine anti-freeze mixtures were very bad for aluminum. Less problem today since so many car engines use plenty of aluminum exposed to the coolant...

Sorry to hear that.

Most of the time you see that method detailed we clearly state to remove the carb and any plastic or rubber and only do metal parts.

Radiators are plastic these days. My '97 Dodge Ram radiator is plastic. I figured the coolant would not harm the plastic. I normally clean engines with McKays Parts Dip, and I am sure to always remove plastic and rubber parts. But I did not think the coolant would harm it. What a surprise.

Here is what's left of it.

Do you guys remove the bearings also or leave them in?

I heard about the plastic and rubber issues with the crock pot method, sorry you got burned. I usually take the head, back plate, muffler and carb off when I cook them. Only on low. Never had problems with the bearings.
Edwin

The properties of various plastic materials differ widely depending on the jobs they are designed for.

GhostRider32: 99.9% of the time I totally disassemble an engine before I dip it in any sort of chemical cleaner. This particular engine as well as the Wen Mac I did were both frozen solid with gummed up old fuel residue and I simply wanted to use the crockpot method as a "pre-soak" so I could loosen up the engines enough to disassemble them and then dip the parts in my McKays cleaner.

That said, yes I also soak my open cage bearings to chemically clean them.

I think the plastic parts on Tee Dee's are Delrin...FWIW. (thanks for the heads-up )

Speaking of FWIW...you can get alum. carb housings for Tee Dee .049's and .051's on the 'bay...they seem to be about the same $ as NOS plastic ones are selling for.

Early anitfreeze was bad for any metal. My father told me a story about when he put a 1939 Ford up for storage while he was overseas and filled the cooling system with antifreeze he pilfered from a Curtiss P-40 hanger. He returned to a pretty much dissolved radiator. Against every thinking mind set on the freeworld, I remove the 50/50 water antifreeze from all of my cars and run pure antifreeze. It will destroy cooling system parts if not changed? Baloney. I did that with a 1985 Nissan Sentra and I never touched any cooling system componet with 240,000 miles on the clock. Hence PERMANENT antifreeze. It's your money.

Bill

It's obvious you care about your little TD (I want one too). Go to fleabay and purchase the replacement aluminum carb body. You should anyway because the original plastic one was prone to cracking. I will do the same when I find a TD for something less than $90.00. If you're really digusted with your TD let me know what you want for it and I'll buy an aluminum carb housing.

Bill

Somebody give me a link! I searched fleabay and did not find anything except a NOS plastic one and I thought the bidding was too high for it.

I finally found it! [sm=thumbup.gif]

Not to hijack the thread, but radiators are still made of aluminum... there may be plastic reservoirs on the side of the radiator, but I assure you the fins and cores are still aluminum. Plastic is an insulator, not a conductor and would thus make a terrible heat dissipater. Also remember that there are thousands of plastics out there, so one type may be perfectly fine with antifreeze at or above boiling and one type might just fall apart by contacting room temperature antifreeze.

Anyway, it's still not cool that it busted up on you... best of luck with the repairs.

No offense intended, but ethylene glycol was introduced in the mid 20's and it was called "permanent antifreeze" because it was to be used year round as it offered the added benefit of a higher boiling point which keeps pressure down within the system even on a hot day... if you remember cartoons featuring early cars and radiator caps blowing off the top of the radiator... that was a reality back in the very early automotive days. You should run a 50/50 mix with water because it vastly improves the heat transfer of the liquid and doesn't significantly increase the freezing temperature. And I'm sure you can get away with a couple hundred thousand miles running the same coolant, but why would you want to seriously? It's not that expensive and if you're a real miser it's not a very difficult proceedure, it might cost you $10-$15 to flush the system yourself... you should do it every 100k miles at least to keep the efficiency of the system intact.

Yes I know, I should have been more clear on that. Thanks.

Radiators are a thermoset plastic, that is it is not melted with heat nor normally disolved in solvents and thus is resistant to solvents. Those Cox parts are probably styrene or some other thermoplastic.

Antifreeze does not conduct nor store as much heat as water. Many, if not most cars, will overheat in the summer if you use 100% antifreeze. Too little and it will conduct heat well but the water boils, too much and it will not conduct heat well but at least it doesn't boil over.