looking to de-carbonize some aluminum parts i have for my car, just wondering if anyone has any good "solutions" as to what kind of chems i can soak the parts in and get rid of the crud on them, preferably something that i can get at a store

i tried some rubbing alcohol and it worked good on some of the surfaces but i'm not too sure if i can leave aluminum soaking in it.
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acetone. and gasoline. dont mix it man, try each one separate and rinse b4 chem changeover. use NITRATE CHEMICAL GLOVES/or neoprene gloves< and eye wear.

 

will the aluminum degrade at all if i soak the parts in either chemical? even for lets say 1/2 hour?

 

Get some easy-off oven cleaner.

 

no, i dont think they will degrade aluminum. i think youll be cool, you might wanna try talking to an Old dude mechanic in town. they typical can tell you if its chill. i used to use gas on old car parts. makes them shiny. but the fumes make you sick. ....when i did my throttle body rebuild, i used engine dgreaser and a brush, man that sucks. the chems soaked to the bone, i had chills in my hands for ahours. use neoprene gloves if you can. they resist fuel and acetone. while the nitrate gloves resists GAs but not so well with acetone. But neoprene gloves resists both

 

Aahh yes, the frozen hand symptom. I can second using neoprene gloves from personal experience, it feels like a burning frost bite. I dont play that game anymore. Also, you can take a more mild approach to try first. Use an aluminum wheel cleaner and a stiff nylon brush, 99 cent toilet brushes are a great choice, and then get more aggresive.

 

Tried using carb cleaner today and it worked pretty good but there is still a residual amount of carbon left. I think the aluminum has soaked up the carbon at the molecular level, it almost looks kind of a rusty color, and no amount of carb cleaner got that stuff off. Not too worried about a little bit of off color just as long as the crap isn't caked on anymore, thanks for all the help though guys

 

if you can take it to a machine shop, have them put it in the hot tank for an hour, and no longer, usually after an hour it becomes dull and wierd looking. you can also use engine degreaser, or carb cleaner. but if you wanna save money on aerosol containers and spare your nose aswell, i think a shop will hot tank it for pretty cheap, then just go over with a teflon bristle brush.

 

You can NOT hot tank aluminum heads. The machine shop will use a water jet cleaning system, oven style heating under 600 deg, or a bead blasting. Hot tanking with caustic soda will not work with aluminum. when bead blasting is used you will have to re-polish any port work done and will also require a new vale job

 

Soak it in sea foam? Its made to remove carbon.....

 

lol, sorry for not being specific, yeah you cant hot tank them with caustic soda. i forget what kinda detergent we use at the shop, but its not as harsh as the caustic soda, and it does clean the aluminum very well aslong as you dont leave it too long. not to mention the stuff we use is easy on your hands