Good piston ring land solvent?

My 750-4 pistons were well covered with carbon when I tore the engine apart. I cleaned them up and they look pretty good.

However, while the new compression rings fit, they fit a bit tightly (they are the right rings), and the clearance seems minimal (a little smaller then it should be). I had cleaned the ring lands with a broken ring (cheap approach but usually works), but I can still see a lot of what looks like carbon/varnish on the flats inside the lands, which I can't seem to scrape out with the broken ring (and I don't want to grind around in there with it!).

Is there a solvent of some kind that will clean the lands out well, that is safe on aluminum?

I use a Berryman's dip tank for cleaning stuff, and it works well on hard burned carbon gunk (if you leave it in a few dys). It's got to be safe for aluminum to dip carburetors, but it will eat most plastics.

You might be able to make a tool out of a popsicle stick that could scrub inside the grooves without damagine the aluminum.

Yamaha Ring Free, available at Yamaha dealerships, enjoys a good reputation.

But don't know how effective it might be in this particular situation as a possible carbon solvent for direct application.

Click here > Ring Free

Good Luck!

I use plain old paint thinner from walmart as solvent. Works like a champ, and it's cheap ($8.00 a gallon). I found an old ceramic coated pot in the storage shed that holds about 2 1/2 gallons. I just rebuilt a Mojave 4-wheeler, I used my makeshift solvent tank to clean the engine parts. The head came spotlessly clean using a toothbrush and the thinner. I soaked the stripped down head for a few minutes, then started scrubbing away. All of the old gunk and carbon deposits came right off, even from the exhaust ports and combustion chamber! After it's clean, blow dry it with compressed air and BAM, done.

Question...

Would soaking them in Seafoam work as a solvent cleaner?

Since they work on a running engine to clean carbon build up why wouldn't soaking do the trick as well... Hmmm, me wonder...

OMR

Full strength Simple Green.

Old Man Rock wrote:

Question...

Would soaking them in Seafoam work as a solvent cleaner?

Since they work on a running engine to clean carbon build up why wouldn't soaking do the trick as well... Hmmm, me wonder...

OMR

The seafoam works great with a little fuel as well.