[ZeGermanHam]

It is pretty incredible to see the transformation. Here is the '68 400ci block that I will be building and installing in my '66 after I have shaken out the bugs for a year or two with the current running engine.

[ponchonlefty]

butler uses a tumbler of sorts. what about electrolysis?

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by ponchonlefty

butler uses a tumbler of sorts. what about electrolysis?

It works, but it may take a few days to get it really clean. Then you have hydrogen gas to contend with.

I used to have a 55 gallon drum 3/4 full of used carb cleaner that the local carb rebuilder wanted to get rid of, that works well, but again it takes a few days to work. You need to pull the parts out and agitate it periodically. It would cost too much if you had to buy carb cleaner, mine was free.

[Formulajones]

Yeah that's not going to be a viable option for a machine shop. They generally don't have several days to wait for a clean block. Time is money for them, and then we all know how people complain if their stuff isn't done when they think it should be LOL

[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

It works, but it may take a few days to get it really clean. Then you have hydrogen gas to contend with.

I used to have a 55 gallon drum 3/4 full of used carb cleaner that the local carb rebuilder wanted to get rid of, that works well, but again it takes a few days to work. You need to pull the parts out and agitate it periodically. It would cost too much if you had to buy carb cleaner, mine was free.

Brad, we used to use a decarbonizing cleaner to soak aircraft engine components in to clean them before glass beading and NDT. It was EVIL smelling stuff that contained a boatload of prussic acid. It cleaned aluminum wonderfully but it also removed your skin and muscle down to the bone. IF I were involved in aircraft engine overhaul today, I would use a high pressure hot wash cabinet followed by wet soda blasting. As you pointed out, electrolysis releases hydrogen gas. It works great to clean out the water jackets and remove rust from the block.

[GoreMaker]

Around here we call it "shake and bake". It's a heated abrasive tumbler. The results are incredible. Cost me $200 to have it done to my Pontiac 400. All the paint and rust vanishes completely, inside and out. Requires a really good washing after to ensure any grit is removed from the internal oil passages

[mgarblik]

When our new facility, (school) was being built in 1998, it was a 35,000 Sq. foot building, 23 million dollar project. It was being built in a very poor/blighted area of the city of Dayton, near the Wright Brothers original first airplane factory. So of course the EPA was all involved in the design and what equipment was allowed in this "new shining star" building. They absolutely did not allow ANY caustic method to clean metal parts. Our dyno had to be a total waste type system with the thousands of gallons of waste water going into two filtered giant concrete holding tanks in the basement with filters and oil skimmers. It tripled the cost of the dyno. The thermal cleaning system and oven had to have a 50,000 BTU afterburner added to the oven to burn the remaining residue after the parts were cleaned. The blaster/tumbler had to have an extra huge filter cabinet added to filter the particulates. This doubled the cost of that equipment. Fortunately, it is still all working 22 years later. The company that made all the stuff has been out of business for 15 years.

[Jack Gifford]

A long time ago (50 years?) a friend hand-ground and polished the outside of a Pontiac V8 block and heads ('58?) to a mirror finish, for a GMC-blown T-bucket on the show circuit. If I remember right (?) he didn't coat it with anything other than paste wax, since it almost never was run.

[Dragncar]

Pontiac iron is good iron. You can polish it and it will shine.
Try that with a plain Chevy block, not happening.

[HWYSTR455]

Shot peen-ing also makes the part more ridged, was a popular method for strengthening rods before the aftermarket rod market picked up.

I believe when blocks are 'tumbled', one has to be sure to check for cracks beforehand, because it can make crack discovery next to impossible.

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