Posted by David Sherman on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 at 11:32AM :
In Reply to: How do you clean water passages? posted by Don in Missouri on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 at 10:53AM :
Do you have an old-time radiator shop around that still has a hot tank? Maybe they'll hot-tank your block for you. Any warm acid solution will dissolve rust and scale but will also etch smooth metal surfaces to some extent. The commercial hot-tank solutions are "magic formulas" modified to eat the crud much faster than they eat the good metal. If I had the block all stripped down I would sure want to get it as clean as when it was new, after having gone to all that work. If the cylinders were going to get bored anyway, and there was a lot of rust in it that wasn't coming out with a hose, I would probably rig up a plastic tank (garbage can, tote bin or the like), put the block in it, and put muriatic (hydrochloric) acid in it diluted with no more than 3 parts water. I probably wouldn't try to heat it, though a stock tank heater might work. I'd swish it around frequently, and maybe leave it in there for a couple of days. Before I did that though, I'd call all over town to try to find somebody with a hot tank. Even a plating shop could probably do it if they could handle the weight, since they have to "pickle" (chemically clean) everything before they plate it.
Follow Ups: