Hi fellas.  I have scored some low km 1200 heads for a 1250 conversion & wanna clean all the carbon & crap from the chambers & ports etc before the install. These heads are in pretty good nick but I wanna bring them up like new for the conversion.

I have some brake cleaner & scourer pads but really want a more thorough clean. Another bloke has mentioned using kerosene & a brush, then giving them a good flush out with water.

An engine outfit here in Perth can strip, bead blast & re-assemble the heads for $120. Although a common cleaning method I have read that bead residue can cause havoc if left behind after the process.

Alternatively I like the idea of ultrasonic cleaning but have been told that the black factory powdercoat may get ruined.

I'm interested if anyone here has any horror stories or advice on cleaning up heads.

Cheers, Slap.

Talk to Daddyracer56 before you attempt anything.

Slapster look up Harris engine recons if ya in perth or galloways if ya near Pinjarra

they both do harley head work and will do the job off cleaning them up

Cheers Ando, I've just had an email back from Mark at Harris. Looks like I may go the strip & blast, he reckons the HD heads are pretty safe to do, they give them a good flush afterwards as well. NRHS use the blasting method as well, so I guess it should be ok if done right.

Still interested to hear others comments though.

Slap.

hi, i am not a big fan of blasting motor inners@ all but you can blast the outside if it;s  to old looking , when blasting inners should be only @ 40 lb's presure  max but they all have there compressors up the max effort about 120 lbs  too cut down on time,      high press pulverize's the bead into smaller partictes & get jamed into the pores of the alloy casting  with the damp of the compress air the glass bead is even more as when damp it will not come out as easy you can wash & scrub as much as you like , if you are going to blast @ least put bolts in all the thread holes,      e.g. when the motor get's  hot the pores will open up more & let the bead out  into your  rebuilt engine,    that's  why i clean by hand ,  after blasting when you heat a head up to change a valve guide   etc that's  when you see little piles of bead  come out even after a good washing ,  WD-40 with the orange squirter into the thread hole's work's  good  with a thread bottle brush,    but anyway most rebuilders do it because  it make the job look new again & less time as well. if your heads are black i would do them buy hand  as the ports & cly head chamber end up with a more poilshed surface  finish buy the time your done   rather than a bead blast course finish

I concur with daddyracer, i would not bead blast but if you do not want to do it by hand you can have the combustion chambers and ports cleaned up with crushed walnut/peanut shells. This method is used extensively within the Gas Turbine industry to remove silica build up on the turbine blades. there is a mob in Perth who do small bits and pieces this way mainly for the RAN out at GI, I do not have there name or address at the moment but will post it when I do, STACE not sure?

I have just completed a clean up of my heads which I did by hand, it does not take long, find a container suitable to take both heads (with valves removed), fill with petrol and leave over night to soak. May take a couple of nights soak, scrub out with green scouring pads. Some bits of carbon may be difficult, use a hacksaw blade with rounded end ( I do not recommend a screwdriver) and work carefully especially around the valve seats.

I went one better and polished the combustion chambers and exhaust ports, finished the inlet ports with 180 wet and dry and left them at that, it all looks a lot better than when I started with the stock head castings which are typical of mass produced items that are by all standards pretty rough.

Cheers Paul

Thanks fellas. Some handy info there.

Slap.

Nothing wrong with bead blast on internals or externals. Been done for years and sure to be done for many more. Have done it on little honda singles, racing engines and even to big diesel CAT stuff over many years without drama's. Most problems occur due to not being cleaned properly.

i agree with you gonads i myself worked in engine machine shop at one stage and i use blast up to 20 + heads in one blast session,from a falcon head to a late model jap heads which had more oil holes/gallerys and water ports than a old air cooled harley head as long as there 110% dry before you blast them and wash dry them after there shouldnt be a problam, and good machine shops no this if i ever let a head go thorgh the cleaning process and the machine boys seen the slightes of sand i would have had a size 10 or bigger up my arse. ..but i do agree it depends who does the cleaning,and if blasting is such a problam thay can allways put them in the alloy clean tank

Cheers guys, perthhog when you say alloy clean tank you referring to ultrasonic cleaning? The engine shop do ultrasonic cleaning but said it may ruin the black powdercoat on my heads. This would be my preferred method but don't wanna risk the powdercoat. Anyway I bought some Liqui Moly brake/parts cleaner & some plastic scourer pads so gonna have crack at it with that for starters & see how it goes...

Slap.

yes you are right it will take the paint/carbon and any other gunk off,it will strip it back to clean looking alloy,if you want to keep the factory paint
only get the ports and chamber blasted or do like you are thinking and as some of the other guys have said and elbow greese and then who ever assembles your heads
get them to run them thourgh there clean robo wash for awhile ,but if there is any of the factory paint coming off now from chips theres a good chance you will
remove more even doing it by hand .

Heads are mint externally, I won't be goin near the powdercoat. Just the chambers/ports.

Cheers.

Slap.

been blasting since the 70s with glass beads an done heads from harleys jappas british an NEVER had a problem after blasting give em a bit of a clean with some 120grit bur an then hit em in a few liters of deisel aftyer ya give em a scrub hit em with a gerni as i said been doin it for yrs an i port n polish an biuld some serious motors turbo nitros ect ect just find a head fella an leave him do his shit

 if a motor does have a bit of shit go thru it it does not mean it's going to blown up  & engine can handle  some debris thats why they put oil filters  in there for ,  i like to build a happy engine thats why i do the work myself then i do not have to rely on other people  but if you never done engine work before  leave it for someone that knows how, if your keen you have to start from somewere

Take the valves out wash out the heads with fuel then die grind the ports just cleaning the inside out maybe taking a little extra on the bottom more. . Then lap the valves back in with paste. That's the cheapest self fix.

I only suggest this as I've seen it done before. I'm no expert!

its so easy to fuck a set of heads if ya dont know wat ya doin theres places ya cant take meat from an places ya can its not a job for the novice to have ago unless ya got a spare set layin around takes ages to port an yrs to know where wat an how to do it right

Cheers for all the input guys. I ended up taking the easy way out & have sent my heads away to get "cleaned" in the U.S.

Slap.