Cleaning machined block: Best way to clean cylinder walls?

69427

69427

The Artist formerly known as Turbo84
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Mar 30, 2008
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Clinging to my guns and religion in KCMO.
Just finishing up deburring the bare block, and will be hosing it down tomorrow. What's the current best way to clean the cylinder walls? I used a bunch of ATF soaked paper towels on the last engine (that's what all the guys in the hot rod magazines did), but has something better come along?

thanks,
Mike
 
PB Blaster and white paper towels...shop rags leave lint.....:club:
 
I think that depends on how long you're talking about being away from it and where you are. where I live in the desert, WD-40 on the cylinder walls is probably good for a couple months. If I need a a little more than that, I'd wipe the cylinders with a rag soaked in gear oil. Long term storage would just be hand applied heavy grease. So the questions are, how long? And how humid?
 
Got the crank in yesterday, and I'm playing around checking the ring endgaps now. Got a question: I'll be hopefully sticking the pistons in this week, and I was curious about something. Like everyone else I usually dunk the pistons in a can of engine oil, but afterwards end up throwing out otherwise usable oil. Is there any issue with dunking them in ATF instead? I've got a couple extra bottles of ATF left over after wiping down the cylinders, and the car is a manual box, so I don't have any future use for this stuff. Any issues with doing this? Wrist pin initial fireup lubrication problems? There's already ATF wiped on the cylinder walls, so the rings shouldn't care.

Thoughts/opinions?
 
I've always used oil. And still had a couple that didn't want to start until I gave the cylinders a shot of oil. My thought is the ATF is too thin to give the rings any seal help on the first start.
 
I first wash my parts 5 times with HOT soapy water and rinse with HOT water. I only use ATF, "F" type, as a last cleaning measure since it has a detergent and gets rid of that last little bit of anything left. I then dry and wipe the walls until the computer cloths come out clean, with no sign of red color.

I then wipe down the walls by hand with fresh engine oil of the type I plan to use during engine break-in/first firing. Oil like Valvoline VR1 Racing Oil which has the good additive package.

I oil the ring lands/rings/pins and the piston skirts, but I don't dunk the piston into oil. I clean away any oil that may get on the piston decks.

Jake
 
JeffP1167 said:
Doesn't ATF have friction inhibitors? I would think that to be bad for cylinder walls.
Click to expand...

Last cleaning with type "F" ATF, then the walls are wiped clean so no red color shows up on the cloth. The walls are then oiled with engine oil.

This is "101" stuff; been around since Hector was a Pup. LOL

Jake
 
cleaning of block

I wash my engines with "Hot" soapy water 3-4 times,dry off with air.and place block on some sort of stand(engine stand is OK),and I place a electric bar heater underneath block as close as possible,turn on high,cover block with old sheets or other covers so heat can't escape,leave for 1-2hrs so block gets really hot.You may need to turn block after 1-2 hours so the heat is radiated ot to top of block(valley area).The heat will not cause any harm,just gets all condesation out of cast iron all so out of hone hatch in bores,this is what causes the dicolouration of bores.
DOne this to many race car engines i have built over the years,with great results:thumbs:
 
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