How to clean parts before new head?

[JimSuperSix]

Hello everyone,

my new head is in the post from Stevo, so I'm cleaning up all the bits I took off before (fingers crossed) putting it back together again.

So, how can I clean the following items -
1. rubber pipes, large and small - oily on the inside
2. inlet manifold - pretty caked in oily crud inside, general muck on outside
3. that large EFI casting thing across the top of the engine - more oily crud inside.

Am I safe to just, for example, soak everything overnight in a bucket of (diluted?) GUNK, then wash down with water, or should I use something else?

I'm also a tad concerned about cleaning the mating faces on ali components, such as the thermostat housing and inlet manifold - should I use a wirebrush , a copper brush, or just fine wet-n-dry?

thanks for your help
James

[Morr]

Not too sure diluting the Gunk will be the most effective idea, as this will naturally reduce its penetrative abilities.

In the case of the rubber hoses, any smaller standard sized ones anyway, it may be a good opportunity to renew them.

Gunk should loosen most of the dirt OK but usually benefits from agitation, even if soaked for a time, get those old tooth brushes out.

Don't use any wire brushes on the Ali mating faces, with a bit of elbow grease and the gunk and a still (non-metallic) brush you should get them clean enough, if required use a plastic scraper on these surfaces.
Resorting to abrasive paper should only be done to clean up damage to these surfaces, and then care must be taken to avoid leaving the surface out of true ie not perfectly flat.

[Guest]

Soak the bits in Parafin (not the rubber hose). The blast out with a pressure washer and allow to dry.

Rubber bits just wipe out with a rag and clean the outside with Gunk - don't soak them as the ends are generally unprotected and the cleaner will affect the reinforcing threads inside.

On mating faces, scrape off gasket material with one of tgose scrapers that you get for removing paint on windows, then a light cleaning with no courser than 600 grade wet and dry. A slightly scratched surface is good to enable better sealing (especially when used with a smear of sealing compund - don't use that on the head though).

On the top of the block, clean with a scraper, a rag and 600 wet and dry.

Clean out the bores only with a rag, no abrasives and try not to remove any carbon ring build up on the top of the bores as this helps the rings to seal.

Cheers

[JimSuperSix]

thanks for the advice guys - I don't have any parafin but GUNK seems to work very well on the plastic parts. The inlet manifold is rough ali on the outside so it will need a few GUNK->rinse cycles to come clean, but I'm getting there.

Andy - you mention cleaning the top of the block with a scraper and fine w'n'd - but how do I stop the bores collecting all the bits that get scraped off?

A friend suggested aligning the pistons about 1/2 way up, putting enough grease into each bore to block up around the edge of the piston and generally cover the top of the piston, then clean the block up and afterwards move the pistons up and wipe out all the grease that will have collected all the bits - does this sound like a good idea or is there a better way to protect the bores?