How to Totally Clean an Engine Block

carrot head 327 I don't clean engines often but when I do I save a lot of money okay guys this video is going to be on how to thoroughly clean a small-block Chevy 350 any engine block I'm going to employ just some simple a brake cleaner to degrease it I'm gonna use some electrolysis to get the rust out of the internal passageways you get the scale out I'm also gonna rig up a home hot tanking setup where I've actually boil the engine and I've got some pipe brushes so this thing is going to be clean clean clean here we go I have used some of this brake clean stuff and pretty much clean the grease off of this engine inside and out I've wiped it down and I used this cardboard here to catch everything and what I'm gonna do with that instead of you know put that out for the garbage people I'm just going to burn that and then that'll that'll clean up that mess so you can see that this stuff does an excellent job now you can take this up to the machine shop and they can hot tank it what I'm gonna do is you can see that corrosion in there I don't want that circulating through my new radiator so I'm gonna use some electrolysis on that so but mainly I wanted to get the grease off I didn't want the grease interfering with the electrolysis and see I wiped it all down it's all nasty and everything but I may hit it again with that just to make sure that there is no grease on the engine but anyway we're gonna put that in a well I'll show you I say we're gonna do electrolysis now you can see that brake clean has got the engine so degreased some of it's still drying off but it started right all right the engine is pretty much dried up and you can see you know how well that has been degreased i'm going to set it in this plastic non-conductive garbage can right here and i've got some just that's just that PVC right there on the bottom to keep up off the bottom and we're gonna lower this down in there all right well there we go just need to Center it up a little bit and start the process all right I got lowered down in there and you can see I've got some PVC spacers in here so that it doesn't touch the engine this is going to be my cathode or my positive side from the battery charger and what I want to dear us is going to be the anode or the negative side so looks a little confusing in here guys but basically what I've done is I've just got a jumper cable from that positive that cathode to that positive over the or that cathode that expanded metal is my sacrificial lamb so to speak and then I've got the negative it loops around goes back to and it goes through here just just so it'll give it another point of contact over there so I just need to put some washing soda in there and get this turned on now some people say you're supposed to put a cup for every 5 gallons and you know I've read all kinds of different stuff on how much of that washing soda you're supposed to put in there and I'm guessing probably about a tablespoon per gallon that's gonna work for me so there's about 16 tablespoons and a cup so and there's 2 cups here so that's about 32 tablespoons and this is say about 30 gallons or 32 gallons so I think that's going to work and I think this stuff dissolves pretty good I may add a little bit more of that in there get that filled up and get it turned on no fear alright I'm also gonna add probably another that's PI less than a cup and just put that in there stir that up all right all we gotta do is turn it on okay I think I got everything in the picture what we're gonna do is plug this in and that needle pegs and no I really don't like how that needles pegged right there but you can see starting to get some bubbles and starting to get some action right there so it's almost four o'clock let's probably gonna let this run for a day or two we'll see let's see how clean it gets all right we'll have to come back to it well we're about five minutes into it and you can see some of that rust starting to be released you can see it is having some type of electrochemical reaction there so that's and that's only been like you know a little over five minutes all right well it's been about 25 hours since I first started this you can see the amperage has calmed down a little bit on that and you can see all the rust and the water and I'm gonna unplug that turn that off and we're gonna lift that out and we're gonna see what that looks like we'll see if that got at that rust off the inside of the motor that's mainly why I was concerned with getting the rust out of the water passages all right let's get it lifted up got the battery charger unplugged let's pull that stuff out and see what it looks like that's the part that was submerged it's just a part that was above the water and that looks gross in this cathode looks equally as nasty [Applause] let's take a close-up of that I think that's just the rust countered off the top right there look down in here oh look at that a good shot of how nasty that was in there but it looked I can hit limescale in it man all I need to do is rinse this off with the water hose and I'll be able to get a really a much better look at it now guys there's no grease and that water right there like I said I'd be greased it before I did this and the grease is going to inhibit what this can do okay so take another look in here all right well let's uh let me hit it with the water hose and we'll just see like I said this stuff is just like that right there that's just just gum off the surface of it hey we hit it you can look down in there I don't see any rust and there that has really cleaned the heck out of those water passages Wow absolutely amazing all right let's get it cleaned up all right well we can see then a fantastic job especially inside there that's mainly what I was worried about little stuff right there but overall guys I'm I'm pretty happy and amazed what this is done right here you can see that is the paint and it's the Chevy Orange with paint that's left on there so you didn't take that off but that's fine I was more interested in getting that stuff out right there that's what I was interested in okay well I need to do is blow this off with some compressed air [Music] all right I blew it out with some compressed air and got a bunch of chunks the water past is a matter of agency some of this stuff on my hands there it just kept coming out and coming out till I got it nice and I felt like it was good you can see some flash rust I've got some wd-40 right there I see someone forgot to pull this gasket off right here but that that's fine that's fine I can scrape that off and like I said some of the surface flash rust but overall guys I'm really impressed with how it cleaned out the the water jackets and got that crust out of there so I'm probably going to be doing electrolysis on every motor I got from now on because you can get this back from a machine shop and they hot thinking and it does not get the rust out of inside right there it just doesn't do it you know or not all of it anyway there's the aftermath just some rusty water and some washing soda alright well just you know looking at this from you know the outside right here it looks like someone's getting ready to have one heck of a turkey frying experience or I don't know as big as that tank is if I put a whole hog in there fry it up or we could do our home hot tanking I think that's what we're gonna do here guys we're gonna do a home version of the hot tank and that's just my old turkey fryer right there and that's that's actually some used peanut oil from frying turkeys so I'm not gonna be using that it's just a joke my propane so let's let's say this is a 30 gallon tank I know some people they and I got that wood in there and it's not pressure treated because I don't want to bowl the nasty chemicals off of the pressure treated wood and I don't want to you know make my engine toxic and I don't want those chemicals around cuz it'd be harder to get rid of it so anyway those are just old boards and on first retreated to keep it up off the bottom and we're gonna use some well I'll show you what I'm gonna used to clean us all right well it just does fit in this is a 30 gallon drum I know some people use garbage cans but I didn't want to take a chance on it leaking and having that hot stuff get all over the place so I wanted something that was made hold product alright let's let's get it on okay guys I want to emphasize that this block has been degreased now if you do this with a greasy nasty engine you're gonna be left with you know almost 30 gallons of greasy water to get rid of and I asked not something I would dump in my yard so degrease the engine and then you can attempt to do this if you don't have the facility to degrease the engine you know pay the I think locally here it's $80 to have your engine hot tank you know that's my recommendation so okay let's get this filled up with water all right I guess this would be considered a large load and I'm just using fab it's just a cheap detergent not using the liquid or anything like that hey guys I didn't put it in there and get it going with the water hose because I didn't want it to foam up and you know get all over the place so stir that in all right could be a hot bowl of laundry here how long it's gonna take for it to heat up it's like we do have some boiling water right there yet some bubbles I really don't see any grease on the top here first like I said it was degreased and I'm looking for chunks to pull out of that that's what I'm looking for little chunks of gasket material or nasty stuff so let that cook for a while longer I think we're about to it and that perfect flower right there is really doing a great job of heating that up [Music] all right we're about 150 degrees guys and that's what I was looking for right there the little chunks of stuff and if you can see that that'll be easy enough to scoop out and throw in the trash that's the orange stuff I think it's just from the barrel itself but this is a non food grade barrel but probably gonna get this up to about 180 degrees that's gonna be its operating temperature and let this cook for a little bit longer but I don't see any oil residue I just see those little chunks floating off right there so that's what we're gonna get that's what I'm going for nice clean and all right it's been about an hour and 15 minutes I think that's good enough you can see those like I said those horns chunks are from the barrel but that dark stuff at dark nasty stuff say little teeny bits of oil and stuff so this motor is going to be clean I'm going to scoop that out and dispose of that properly that little oil oily residue and we'll get this engine out let it cool it'll take too long to cool in the water so let's get that out of there let's get it cleaned out let's get it out [Music] alright guys well it looks looks hot so no no got to be cleaner than it was anyway I'll need to let that cool down and probably should pressure-washed it and then I'm gonna get my bottle brushes on there and really make sure it's clean so okay well there you go home hot tanking and those are the pieces of wood that we're down there on the bottom and if you notice they're not pressure-treated so alright let's let that cool off excited a little bit of rust in the water and that'll take quite a while to cool down and then like I said I'll get my engine cleaning brushes and take care of that okay guys I took some compressed air and I blew everything off and it looks pretty clean to me and you can see I did scoop some of that stuff out right there but those are just little little grease balls and stuff that like that that came on the engine and this is what I did I just got a little cup and just scoop that up just like that and like I said I will dispose of that stuff properly and then I'm going to be left with this water here that stuff there see that or not but there's not a whole lot of stuff that came off of the engine just like I said just a I don't know if I were to add all that up it might be a teaspoon I don't know maybe but get all this and get this stuff up and I need to this is starting to flash rust as you can see right there so I need to hold up the block but I'm gonna get my brushes out and it's cooled off now I can I can touch it and we'll get it get it worked off get that cleaned up down here this is my bore brush set now these are new I just got those I don't know what happened to my old set it's been some years since I've done any of this type of work but I got a new set this is mr. gasket and looks like it would make uh how would work on a shotgun I'm just kidding huh you don't want to be inside of a shot shotgun or any type of barrel but let's get this thing cleaned out I've got a little break clean right there and let's let's work it over and see if there's anything nasty left inside that engine and I would say offhand that's a good sign right there but guys we want it clean [Music] just play a little stuff down in there and we will well that's another one all right we're gonna get these other ones right here let's get a brush okay let's get this all filter deal right here the best we can all right well I have those little wool passages for the cam bearings we want to see those out and we went in one way with the brush let's let's get it from the other way too all righty then all right let's roll the engine over and let's oh I almost forgot you don't have a dirty dipstick - right there like I said guys if you go in one way you probably want to go in the other way go in both ways and get it nice and clean [Music] that thing weighs about 170 171 pounds or so something like that so let's get this here now I'm going to run a chase down there and clean those threads out okay after I do all that I like to you know blow it out hit it with a airgun all right I don't know what happened here but it seems I've lost some footage here but guys after I used to break clean and the bore brushes what I usually do is I'll get some of this Dawn dishwashing detergent or any dishwashing detergent of work and one of these scotch-brite creds and I will put that in all those little holes and I'll run the brush in there and the bore brushes and then you know like these bores right here I'll put some soap on there and I'll just clean those out you know and just make sure everything is nice and clean and then hit it with the hose and then I'll put a trash a trash bag on that and when I get ready to assemble it I'll probably hit it again with brake clean also what I want to say is if you have your engine block you know you take it up for cleaning at a machine shop you know that that's fine that's great guys there's nothing wrong with that but I highly recommend that you know after you get it back from your machine shop that you run the bore brushes through there where you can and clean out what you can and give it a hot soapy wash a lot of times when the machine shop does they're boring and all that stuff there's so gritty stuff that Canon can remain in the block and you don't want that circulating in your new engine parts it will wear it out a lot quicker and it's not as good so okay well I just wanted to throw that in there well that wraps it up so I just want to tell you guys out there stay greasy my friends

Channel: Gearhead 327

Views: 152,899

Rating: 4.7978849 out of 5

Keywords: how to clean an engine block for rebuild, how to clean engine, how to clean an engine, rebuilding engine, home hot tanking, home hot tank engine, electrolysis engine block, bore brush engine block, how to degrease an engine, hot tank, home hot tank, engine building, engine rebuilding, diy hot tank, derust engine

Id: J00giBWWLC8

Length: 30min 25sec (1825 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 23 2019