Cleaning a block?

[3xpendable]

I have a Rover V8 engine that i'm rebuilding but I want to clean the block up before doing so. My brother suggested pressure washing it then lots of use of a cleaning tank and finally bead blasting it. I'm not happy with this as water could cause some rust to internal parts and we all know what happens when grit or beads gets into an engine.

What are my other options? I've been told of old style 'hot tanks' but they appear to no longer around due to health and safety legislation. I;ve seen restorations where engines go into a car looking like new so it much be possible, but what or where?

Oh and please don't suggest, as someone did, that I stick an aluminium engine block in a bath of Caustic soda!

Thnaks

[TerryG]

When cleaning mine I covered it in gunk then steem cleaned it off. After going over it twice, it looks like new.

[OneCarefulOwner]

Not wishing to point out the obvious, but you can't get "rust" on aluminium There's likely to be some oxidisation already present which will stop the surfaces being too reactive, but I can't see any way of avoiding more whether you use water or not; ally is terribly volatile when it's not in a compound, so even the act of polishing it off then leaving it unprotected from the normal atmosphere will allow oxidising to re-occur.

[TerryG]

cough *steel liners* cough

[OneCarefulOwner]

Ah, fair enough.

[JPB]

Yes, the liners are steel, but certain areas of the water jacket on these - as well as that on a goodly number of other aluminium blocks - can corrode through from the inside outwards if the cooling system isn't kept clean with regular changes of coolant. I've seen a "core plug failure" that was nothing of the kind, but was in fact one that had dropped out because the surrounding ali had all but vanished, thought to be a result of flushing with something that had a pH to the high side of neutral. It couldn't be one of the easily accessible ones either.


Kurust, Jenolite liquid, decent white vinegar or something similarly acidic will clean it up and won't eat it. Solvents such as cellulose thinner are better yet and will offer some protection to a dry surface long after the carrier has evaporated.