Carbon Removal

[cstmwgn]

Are the Red Scotch Brite Red (medium) Rolocs good to use to remove carbon from the piston crowns?
Is there something better / faster that won't hurt the pistons?

[squirrel]

I scrape it off carefully with a chisel, then use a wire brush. There's probably a better way to do it.

[oletrux4evr]

I would imagine the most aggressive the better, up until actual material is being removed.......work into it slowly and see how it goes.

[oldschoolcamaro]

what i've used is carb cleaner or gasoline and a soft bristle brush and even heard of using seafoam or seafoam deep creep as those also work well to remove/loosen carbon

[DanStokes]

Believe it or not - if you can soak them overnight in Rislone it kicks carbon booty. I don't know quite how long it takes but I know overnight works.

Hope you and the wagon are well!

Dan

[Rocketman]

Are the Red Scotch Brite Red (medium) Rolocs good to use to remove carbon from the piston crowns?
Is there something better / faster that won't hurt the pistons?

I would not have thought that would be an issue for you. The blue rolocs are made for aluminum and will be safer (less aggressive) than the red. You do still have to be a little careful, but they are pretty effective and much safer

[TheSilverBuick]

I use a wire brush on a drill or grinder.

[Barry Donovan]

if the pistons other half is designed to bond to a carbon layer, just use alot of soak, play games thermally, hot and cold.

I found my locale keeps pistons clean to the point of lightning, that is why.
hot and cold, some shots of gas.

the usual is a parts cleaner, any kind. Carb cleaners, brake clean, even 1 dollar jugs of citric "totally awesome" from family dollar has its way eventually.

not even 1970s design two strokes cake up here.

[cstmwgn]

Update - Thank you all for your input.

Barry - I have been on this board for a long time and I have yet to be able to understand your posts in detail. This is especially disheartening as I raced 2 strokes for over 30 years. Thanks for the input and perhaps one day the light will click on for me.

Dan - thank you for your advice. I soaked the pistons for 20ish hours but not sure how much it helped,

Jim and Randall - I couldn't bring myself the the coal chisel but I did go with a fine wire brush in my 90* air drill followed by green scotch brite pads by hand.

Mike - I too was a little surprised by the build up. It wasn't real bad and there was a time when I was running with some friends that made it hard to keep heat in the motor. Not sure I fully understand that as the explanation was too much heat or something like that in theirs. Anyway, I realize you don't understand how far out of Mongolia I live but NONE of the Auto Parts stores had either Blue or Gray Rolocs in stock. The pistons are 4032 so they seemed to tolarate the more aggressive cleaning solution I used.

With a little luck, I should be able to get them shipped off to Kasse tomorrow.


Thanks again everyone.

[TheSilverBuick]

Wire wheel brush and a small screw driver.

[DanStokes]

The Rislone trick came from working at the Buick dealer. The '64-only 300 engine (a version of the 215 with an iron block and early aluminum heads) would coke up the intake valves to the point that they would no longer seat. We had an extra set of coked-up valves and soaked them in everything in the shop (brake fluid, lacquer thinner, etc.) in the hopes of finding a way to save our customers the annoyance of having to leave their nearly-new cars for a valve job. A salesman had dropped off a can of Rislone to try to get us interested (we weren't much for snake oil) and we had a valve left so we though "what the heck". Well, it worked - I was remembering that we soaked them overnight but maybe it was longer. So we started adding a quart of Rislone to THE GAS at every filter change (we used to do oil at 2500 miles and LOF at 5000 miles) and the problem was solved. If one came in that we knew was gunked up we'd use it at every gas fill-up and soon it would be all better. I wish we'd had a bore scope in those days!

Of course, this was '64/'65 so maybe the formula is different now.......

Dan

[Scott Liggett]

On my Impala's cast pistons, I used the Scotchbrite pads on the die grinder. Polished the pistons too. Probably why my 9.8:1 compression engine is running on shit 87 octane.


On the Caprice's forged pistons, it was wire brush on a drill.

[Rocketman]

Update - Thank you all for your input.

Mike - I too was a little surprised by the build up. It wasn't real bad and there was a time when I was running with some friends that made it hard to keep heat in the motor. ....... ......Anyway, I realize you don't understand how far out of Mongolia I live but NONE of the Auto Parts stores had either Blue or Gray Rolocs in stock.

With a little luck, I should be able to get them shipped off to Kasse tomorrow.


Thanks again everyone.

If you need some I can drop some in the mail. I feel somewhat responsible (just a little though) for "making" you run so slow once upon a time

[milner351]

Don't overlook natures most universal solvent --- WATER
Sure you don't want your rings getting rusty - but if you have the rings off and it's a full floating piston free of the easy to rust steel connecting rod - put the piston in a bucket of water over night - you'll be pleasantly surprised with the results.

[Caveman Tony]

Toss 'em in the dishwasher.

...just make sure your wife is out shopping for the day.