Cleaning built up Carbon from head.

05 Police 1000. 83,000 miles.

Okay,,, this has probably been covered elsewhere but cleaning the ninja carbon off this head is proving to be difficult.
Tried, Chem-Dip,,, WD-40. The carbon just laughs. Tried a brass brush,,, The carbon destroyed the brush. Ended up having to use a steel brush and screwdriver. Took a couple of hours for one cylinder.
Checked out videos online but they must have dust carbon. A little soaking of this or that and the part looks brand new!

Looks like I'll have to try glass beading or something. Anyone got a surefire method?

Media blasting works but you have to be very careful to avoid filling up the blind oil passages in the head with blasting grit. I used soda to blast my 750 head for this exact reason. Even with that it's important to clean the head as if your life depends on it, paying particular focus to the internal oil passages. You can get a hand held total loss blaster gun and soda media from Harbor Freight (assuming you are located in the USA.) Realize before starting that the soda will kill any grass it comes in contact with so doing the job on your driveway or similar may be advised.

P1020017 by nessism , on Flickr

Hey Nessism,,, Wonder if regular old baking soda would work....

A straight wire wheel in a cordless drill worked well for me with the valves still in. You don't want to hit the seats with it. Important part is getting all of the carbon out of the cylinders and rings. That can damage the liners at startup, ruin the cylinders and cause oil burning.
I take the block off and wash the pistons in the sink placing them back the cylinders they came from if reusing the rings. That depends on how worn they are.
Steve

@ Swest

Yes I am using a brass wire wheel. They say not to use a steel wheel but every wheel I found stated it was brass COATED steel....

Have the head off, valves and those sweetheart little oil seals out. The carbon was built up so much that it had to be holding 2 exhaust valves open. I had to clean the seats as gently as possible to get that carbon off. What amazes me is that the bike ran pretty good with all that crap. Initial reason for disassembly was to replace cam chain. Glad I did as all orings and seals were hard as bricks,,, but none leaking,,, and the oil pan had some unknown gunk in it that required a putty knife to remove.

I use steel wheels with valves in. Even with oven cleaner it's hard to get the stuff off. I installed new exhaust valves thinking I would get some clearance back but had to tip them anyway. The old valves were sealing on the carbon. The new valves wound up pitted by the carbon the next time around.
Steve

WOW!!!! 83,000 miles on a Cop bike motor. Guarantee you the valve guides are history!!!!

ken19 wrote: Hey Nessism,,, Wonder if regular old baking soda would work....

I don't know that much about blasting soda but I've always thought it was basically baking soda just less refined and in larger chunks.

And as Gamma says, you should check the guides. The wobble check is crude but reasonable.

@Nessism: Checked it out and you're correct. The blasting soda is larger.

@gamma: Please only positive oriented comments.... Those guides are okay!!,,,, hell, you're probably right. Worse, I don't have a clue how to check them much less how to correctly replace them out.

To clean the carbon I recommend soda blasting or aqua blasting. It still takes some time but your head will sparkle afterwards.

For your valve guides, based on your comments I think it's best to take it to a machine shop. And be careful which guides you purchase...if possible go OEM.

hardrockminer wrote: For your valve guides, based on your comments I think it's best to take it to a machine shop. And be careful which guides you purchase...if possible go OEM.

What about APE guides?