carbon removal

I'm rebuilding the top end of a 1015 and I'm cleaning the head and pistons......LOTS of carbon. Anyway, I'm sure all you guys are aware of how painful it is to remove all the carbon. I'm using a product called "Piston Klean" that I found on the internet, which actually works ok. Soak, scrub, soak, scrub, etc. Also using a dremal in lots of places to help things along. I'm doing my best to stay away from critical areas with the dremal (like valve guides and seals). My question is related to the valves. Is there something special about the surface of the valves that I should be aware of (i.e., should I be tender with them as I remove the carbon). Obviously I should in the seal areas which I plan to lap when I install. But what about the top of the valves. Are they specially treated or coated with something....they have a gold color appearance...what is that?

wire wheel the valves,just dont lean on them too hard!i allway have heads glassbeaded but make sure you remove all your seals and bottem retainers and tach drive and put wood dowels in you valve guides to keep glassbeads out of there .clean everything really good when your done,run it through the dishwasher a couple times if the wife isnt home! :whistle: goodluck,happy wrenching!

I wire wheel the effin' crap outta my heads...I'm doing a street-port job on my 900 A4 right now and my method made short work of the carbon build-up in the runners and combustion chamber. Dremel also makes a really cool little jammy that is kinda like a scotch brite pad that polishes stuff up really nicely...good luck!

thanks. now for the obvious stupid question....what is glassbead. I assume it is some sort of miricle way to clean the head very good that maybe a machine shop might do for a nominal fee. I assume that because I have spent numerous hours cleaning the head with elbow grease while chanting..."there must be an easier way".

its like sandblasting but they use silica sand i think its called,cleans aluminum but not as abrasive as sand.

Don't use sand on aluminum unless you want to remove material.
Use glass beads or other non-abrasive media.
-Duck

Duck:is silica sand the same thing as glass beads or am i using the wrong term,i know you dont use sand blasting sand,its way too hard on aluminum.:whistle:

Wireman-
I missed your post on this one.
Glass beads are usually silica glass but they are smooth on the surface so they don't cut.
Silica sand is sharp and cuts. Quartz sand is sharp and harder than silica sand and will cut steel pretty fast.
-Duck

thanks,i knew it was silica something.

I did this with a dremel scotch-brite pad (after wire-wheeling it!)

looks good!

Thanky, thanky...head is out gettin' inspected. Did a street port on this head and ended up needing to replace the guides as well. NO way in HELL i was gonna totally effing foul up the time I spent on this head by installing the guides myself---they'd have ended up SIDEWAYS in the bore!!!! :laugh: