Deep cleaning cam housing/tower

[MarkP]

Hello fellow carpokers,
Can anyone recommend a method of cleaning the inside of the camshaft housing? After 40 years it is unsurprisingly caked in deposits within - thank you!

[gb951]

If you are unmarried, or want to be, I recommend the dishwasher.

[dr bob]

Dishwashers make poor parts washers, at least when the parts are caked with crud. Notwithstanding the consequential damages. In my limited experience anyway.

First attack is mechanical, with scrapers and maybe brushes to get the majority of the solids removed. After that, an extended soak in deodorized mineral spirits (paint thinner) will do a lot to soften the remaining layers. Scrapers again, and a stiff-bristle parts cleaning brush will help to agitate the remains and expose new layers to the paint thinner. Repeat until it's clean.

There are some interesting cleaners I use on specific things. One is a Zep spray degreaser I find at Home Depot. Find the can that has d-limonene prominently on the label. On aluminum engine and gearbox castings, it does a pretty spectacular job of final cleaning and brightening the aluminum. Some tired and especially some surfaces that have seen lye or the caustic purple degreasers in the past seem to respond well to d-limonene. Good for pressure-cast and forged pieces, but not for anything anodized that you want to preserve. They also sell it in gallons, and there's some advertised as a grill cleaner. It's citric acid, so not something you'd want to use as an extended soak. Realistically, these are not the best choice for grease, but work very well on baked-on crusty deposits. Time is your friend with these, and there's definitely some labor with the scraping and brushing.

I've been playing some with Dawn Power Wash on barbeque grill grates. Those are stainless here, and results are promising. The ingredients list has some alkaline products that are good for dissolving grease but would be tough on aluminum if left on for long. A thorough rinse is essential, and maybe some neutralizing steps like the citrus cleaner would be in order as part of that treatment.

[MarkP]

Than k you Dr Bob - will try soaking in paint thinners and will go from there

[dr bob]

More off-the edge of my brain thoughts:

If you are doing a very complete disassembly, and can do a total cleaning of oil passages and cavities, dry media blasting may also be friendly. Another option is a dry-ice blast. There's a local shop here that offers dry-ice blasting mostly for undercarriage cleaning. If I had a seriously tough project I'd consider letting them blast it, after I got as much off as I could myself. Neither blasting method will clean cavities and orifices/passages that you can't see. The dry ice option leaves no residue or debris of its own, as soda blasting might.

[seiplej]

I powder coat at home. If it were me id scrape clean then burn the rest off in an oven till it stops smoking followed by sandblasting.

[zooklm1]

I have a parts washer and have generally had good results with a product called PSC1000. I can find it at my local Tractor Supply. I would avoid most big box store alkaline cleaners because they don’t have stabilizers that would help to reduce corroding the aluminum. You might check with local metal refinishing/plating companies or machine shops to see what they have for industrial cleaning/degreasing.
Good luck.
Lee