To hot tank or not?
 

I picked up a sohc head and it's black like tar inside but there's no sludge on any of the parts and under the valve cover it's spotless so I don't think thats original cover for it. Anyways how can I clean the head without having to disassemble it and hot tanking it? Would just Seafoam work when I get the engine together and running or is there something else? Maybe just spray it down with brake or carb cleaner? Can I hot tank it completely assembled or not? Sorry I just never had anything hot tanked before so I don't know what is all involved with it and what has to be done to the parts before hand. ???

Re:To hot tank or not?
 

take apart the head, everything except the valve assembly and clean it with wd40 or carbcleaner wtv.

makes it nice and shiny

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A toothbrush is a useful commodity.

Re:To hot tank or not?
 

dip the whole head in a 5 gallon bucket of moneral spirits.
let it soak for 2 days. it'll look like new, i did this to my turbo before the install.

Re:To hot tank or not?
 

whats moneral spirits
if it contains water some parts may get rusty

Re:To hot tank or not?
 

IT would only get rusty if you left some water on the parts with out wiping them down. If they are submerged it shouldnt matter. Just make sure that you wipe them down completely. A couple days shouldnt hurt anything.

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paint thinner, mineral spirits, or dip it in a 5 gallon bucket of diesel fuel.

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First shot is kinda fuzzy but you can see that the rockers are pretty black and nasty. :-\
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...n/74c0bc30.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...n/28a1f291.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...n/5bbb51a4.jpg

Re:To hot tank or not?
 

hot-tanking is only about $30. and while ur at it, have the shop mill the head about .005", it will insure a good seal.

when you buy used...... "Caveat Emptor" (buyer beware)

just my $ .02
mike

Re:To hot tank or not?
 

The head only ran me 75 shipped so I wasn't losing out on much and since it's a y5 head it should have that many miles on it cause who keeps these in their cars anyways? :P

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I just did a block in paint thinner, and it wasn't as great as I thought it would be. It still required some wire brushing.
The only thing I would be concerned about is the head surface where it meets the block. Take a wire brush on a wheel (you know the round ones) and tag the head until all of the ---- comes off. It works good.

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I may try hose that fucker off with a 1-2 punch of carb cleaner and brake cleaner and some degreaser and finish'er off with a wire wheel SSL2K bought for me. Kaapow! She'll be fresh cut like million bucks 8) Damn those roller rockers be blingin!!

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spenser put his motors' head in the dishwasher, he said it came out like new.

Re:To hot tank or not?
 

---- that! Were still paying on our dishwasher we just got. Plus my wife would kill me. Maybe I'll break into someone's house and do it in their dishwasher. To bad they don't have laundrymat for like dishwashers :P

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ive soaked some burnt pistons in that castrol superclean stuff and it worked pretty damn good

Re:To hot tank or not?
 

DONT PUT YOUR ---- IN THE DISHWASHER!!!. I just finished telling travis that my dishwasher stopped working the other day. I was actually gona update my thread. 8)

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LOL holy ----! it probably just got clogged with grease. throw in a bottle of liquid plumber and turn it on, it'll probably fix that.

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I wasn't impressed with super clean. It worked well enough but etched the aluminum on parts I left for an hour. You really should completely disassemble the whole thing, even the valves. If you get a cleanup and resurface done, a good shop will totally disassemble it.

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Any of you guys ever even been to a machine shop? they don't HOT tank aluminum parts, you hot tank the steel and iron parts. Put aluminum in a hot tank and you won't have anything left to machine. They use a Cold tank on aluminum parts. Its kinda old school though, most of the good rebuilders now use a partswasher thats specific to the metal type, and looks like a big dishwasher. Open the door, put the greasy parts in, close door, turn on timer, after 20min you get nice shiny parts, charge customer $30.

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Do you have to worry about valve stem seals when you soak the parts in thinner or degreaser?? since they're not metal

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remove them and dont worry about it 8)

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hmmm... the shop that i took my block to , hot tanked mine. i seen them do it. it was steaming. they know what they are doing, or else they wouldn't be in business