| Author | Message | ||
     Suaverider |
Hello, What is the best product for cleaning the entire engine area? Painted engine block and heads. I've got the chrome cleaning covered but would like to clean up my starter housing etc. The metal is really dirty and nasty. Is there a product that can make these parts shine again? Also needs to be safe for paint etc. Part of my heads are that clear-coated aluminum. What can get those to shine again? Thank you | ||
| Jersey_thunder |
did you try bikebrite and a brush? jt | ||
| Jackbequick |
For accumulated oil and grime, I like the Gunk solvent that comes in a one gallon can and needs to be diluted for use (I use mineral spirits or paint thinner). I use that with my collection of parts cleaning brushes, cheap paint brushes, M-16 cleaning brushes, and scaps of toweling to loosen up all areas with any accumulated oil and dirt. I do up under the engine cases, fenders, the wheels, etc., too. Let that set a bit and hose it all off. The gunk will turn milky and it will take everything down to clean metal normally. Even that valley behind the rear cylinder. If you can get in there with a brush to loosen it up it will wash off. I usually use the Gunk on the toweling scrap to wipe down all the frame tubes and flat black covers and guards. Everything but the painted surfaces. Make sure you get it all rinsed off. After the Gunk is washed off, I do a soap and water washdown of the whole bike. I like to ride it for 5-10 minutes or more after I wash it to get everything warmed up and dried out good. Then I wax the painted stuff using a good (but not abrasive) paste car wax. I use that on the painted stuff, fork legs, sliders, and it seems to make them all easier to clean the next time. For more aggressive polishing on unpainted stuff like rocker covers and headers I use an abrasive Mother's paste aluminum polishing compound and then Never-Dull wadding on the aluminum and on the stuff that is really oxidized. Using the Mother's, then the Never-Dull, then putting a coat of paste wax on the parts (not the headers of course) gives you good looks and some long term protection. I polished my rocker covers by hand when I had them off this winter, they turned out okay but certain not brilliant. Those are investment or cavity molded parts and the aluminum is too granular to take on the same level of polish that you can get with the much finer grained billet aluminum parts. Jack |
