Head & bore clean-up question

For carbon cleaning, Yamaha offers a spray cleaner,"combustion chamber cleaner" PN ACC-COMBC-HC-NR,(or very close) works very well, and leaves parts clean & shiny as opposed to oven cleaner which oxidizes alum. G

What I use to clean my engines inside and out is ZEP Orange Cleaner. which I buy at "Home Depot" in one gallon bottles. I use it on my carburetors, combustion chambers, valves, you name it. Once I let it soak for a day or so. I reassure wash it, with my little Home depot electric pressure washer. I just use it straight out of the bottle. When I am done with it I save it for reuse. These carburetors were painted black and all gummed up. I soaked them for a few days.

This head was also only soaked and pressure washed. Although I had to do it about three times to get the chambers clean.

These were also only "Orange Cleaned"

Thanks BH & otakar on the info, I'll give it a try, T.

Any one else have any suggestions on what they use to clean the outside of the bores & heads of road crud,oil,carbon I'd like to hear from U.Thanks,TODDSTERB)

My 2 cent's worth ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
IF you have a "Hi Tech" engine or machine shop around ,,,
Beg ,ask nicely ,pay if you can ,sweep floors while they are doing it, whatever ,,,,,,,,,
Find someone with an ultrasonic tank ,,,,,,,

They take EVERYTHING off and leave the finish just as it came out the factory .

They also cost $20.000 so not many shops have them .
Think aerospace !

What is the best stuff for outer clean-up, to get old paint, oil, & all the other road crud off with the least amount of effort?

--Bead blast

I also need to measure the bores & I don,t have an inside micrometer, what else could I use to measure it with & still be accurate with the measurements?

--Buy a set of Tee bore gauges and transfer measurements with the tee bore gauges to a digital caliper.

What works best for removing carbon deposits from valves,

--Fine wire brush on drill

I need to remove the valves from the head to do it?

--YES

What is the best stuff to use to get old gaskets off with-out having to scrape & scrape?

--Scraping is the only real way to get the bulk of the gasket material off. Some use spray on gasket remover to soften the gasket material. Also, a Dremel tool with wire brush attachments come in handy.

Thanks MD & wiredgeorge, I found a guy w/beadblaster. 80.oo for the head & 40.00 for the cylinder base, said he would also do the valves for that price. Is that a good price or not? I have no idea! I see that Tool King has a set of Tee Bore Gauges for about 20.00. I just ordered them & while I wait on them I,ll take the valves out & get that to bead blaster along w/head & base, then work on taking old gaskets off. Thanks for your sage insights. If there is anything you could add on my rebuild, I would greatly appreciate your suggestions. Again many thanks!! TODDSTER

I agree with Wiredgeorge for the outside. Bead blast.... It turns out sweet. Finish it off with a little #0000 steel wool if desired.

Be careful about blasting the head. It has some coating on it, and the media goes everywhere if not very careful. I have a head sitting around where I have a feeling they sandblasted it, and it looks like crap.

Thanks for all the info & suggestions on cleaning the head & bores(outside). If anyone else thinks of any other suggestions or ideas, feel free to lay it on me. I been looking at aluminum cleanig chemicals via google trying to figure out an industrial strength dip. So far no luck, but I'll keep looking. Thanks again to all you guys with your "SAGE" wisdom & advice!!! TODDSTER