TOPIC:

........ clean the coke out of my head! Anyone got any tips for cleaning the carbon out without damaging anything.The head is stripped,valves are out but the guides are staying in place (so,blasting is off the cards). I got the worst off the alloy from the top of the chamber but the seats,valves and ports especially are still pretty bad. Any suggestions?

If you can figure out a way to keep them immersed in Barryman's for about 48 hours...?

In what??

Carburetor dip is what they meant by Berryman's. 

I used a Dremel with a wire brush and it did a decent job - didn't seem to leave any marks, but I went light on the pressure. 

wrote:

Carburetor dip is what they meant by Berryman's. 

I used a Dremel with a wire brush and it did a decent job - didn't seem to leave any marks, but I went light on the pressure. 

Berryman www.berrymanproducts.com/products/cleani...ional-parts-cleaner/

Used to work much better when I was a kid..... didn't everything, though?...

wrote:

Carburetor dip is what they meant by Berryman's. 

I used a Dremel with a wire brush and it did a decent job - didn't seem to leave any marks, but I went light on the pressure. 
 

A brass brush would be handy for that: brass [wire] is softer than steel [wire] so you can apply more pressure without making marks.

wrote:

........ clean the coke out of my head! Anyone got any tips for cleaning the carbon out without damaging anything.The head is stripped,valves are out but the guides are staying in place (so,blasting is off the cards). I got the worst off the alloy from the top of the chamber but the seats,valves and ports especially are still pretty bad. Any suggestions?
 

Dishwasher?

Soda blasting is relatively safe.  That's what I did.  Afterwards I spent considerable time washing every nook and crannies, and making sure no grit was inside the oil passages.  

P1020015 by nessism , on Flickr

You won't have access to the crazy solvents in Amsterdam that we have in the US.
You may be limited to more mechanical methods.

How about vapor blasting?


.

+1 for soda blasting. I did many heads with it, works great and no damage to metal 

Thanks for the replies. I found a Dremel brush with a photo of some valves on the packet, so I bought a couple of them. Mixed results to be honest.I don't want to go too heavy,especially around the seats.I've also tried soaking the valves themselves in various different unctions. Nothing really does much so far. Tonight we are bathing in paint stripper!!