Cleaning inside the engine
 

want to clean the piston and sleeve, the piston and sleeve has black stuff on it, anyone know what to use to take that black stuff off.

If it is not REALLY excessive, leave it on.

It's deposits of castor oil, which is exactly what you want there.

If your engine should overheats, this stuff will keep it from seizing.

The entire piston is black, is that ok, if it does have any negative impact on the engine, then i wil leave it they way it is.

I use NevrDull to clean and polish my piston and sleeve.http://www.superiorcarcare.net/eo104.html

DON'T clean the piston no where except the top if it is necessary!
don't do it for the inside of the sleeve.
leave them as they are.

the entire piston is black? Surely the side is still silver?
Like everyone is saying, if the gunk is not excessive on top, just leave it as it is - it shouldnt harm your engine but if you can pick it off with your finger or something else soft, just wipe it off with a clean rag or similar.

Indeed with an alcohol pad you cn wipe it off, if you want to use a polisher just use it on top but not at the side of the piston.

Yes dj, entire piston is black, but i decided against cleaning it, there was just some build up on the top of the piston that i scraped very lightly with a stanley blade, must have been some bad fuel with poor quality oil.

It is not bad oil, it is just mostly caused by castor oil and there is nothing wrong with castor....

Brilliant idea:lol::weird::rolleyes:

wow, a silver piston gone black - that's a first for me!!!
DO NOT touch the side of the piston if you do eventually clean it.
If you do clean it, I would advise not to use any harsh or strong chemicals unless you know 100% that it wont do anything to the material (not that there might be any, but better to be safe then face-palming yourself!)

At one stage I cleaned the insides of our engine , we used a very similar product once , it was branded "Maserati BriteShine Cotton Wadding" - very delicate in the way it removed the carbon deposits.

The only problem was that it contained some sort of silicone which coated the glow plug elements....took about 1/2 litre before it stopped fouling glow plugs.

Now I just use it to polish the outside of my tune pipes.

Brasso & Silvo work well , but be sure to thoroughly rinse off any residue ( wipe with a white paper towel & nitro fuel until clean )

You know there is a way to let people know that sometimes what there using is not such a great idea without berating them or making fun of them. In this hobby many of us are continually learning ...and with that comes mistakes.

I used this technique with all my engines and I have at a minimum of 5+ gallons with them and increasing. The material is soft, after I clean it, I wash it with dawn soap removing the chemicals and possible residue, blow it down with the air compressor, re-oil the parts, and re-install. Just dont scratch the exterior of the piston and the interior of the sleeve. Make sure the polshing cloth material is completely removed.

So why do people (world engine performance manufactures) port the bores polish valve piston, and the ports? Thats with any scale engines.

Does the castor oil being there a bad thing? The answer is no, but it sure raises the eye brows of tuning.

sorry to get off topic they dont polish stuff any more as a rough surface allows the air fel mixture to atomise a lot better it mixes the fuel better making more power.

if it was me id leave all deposits on top of piston it gives a little insurance, it will try and melt away deposits before damaging liner and slightly bumps up comp giving a little more power but adds weight put up a pic so we know how to direct you better

as for cleaning the black only on top of the piston use toothpaste dab libererally on let sit for a bit then polish off in a circular motion

I use a water based de-greaser in my heated ultrasonic.... Gets the engine sparkling clean !

Fuel works good. I have a liter jug of fuel that I use specifically for engine cleaning (20% nitro, 16% oil) The nitro will free all the gummed up parts and old/built up oil and carbon in the engine and the oil in the fuel will coat all the parts and ensure no rust happens. You can get in there with some q-tips and pipe cleaners to get the really gummed up stuff off. Just dont do any scraping or rubbing to the piston skirt or the inner part of the sleeve.

The part in bold is true, if the oil is used on it's own. Otherwise we would not need to remove as much fuel as possible after running, or before storage - because the the nitro is 'Hydroscopic' (correct spelling or word?) meaning it attracts moisture from the air?

Methanol is hygroscopic.

Both, methanol and nitro methane are highly hygroscopic...

Perhaps you did not understand....

Even the most synthetic oils are a bit hygroscopic

Thanks guys, I thought it looked a little wrong :p

The black stuff is from not enough oil lube. and high nitro content. Add more oil lube and you will be fine.. All my engines are clean from using the correct amount of oil lube 18%. You can clean it off with oven cleaner and a scotch brite pad.

The black stuff is for a part a burn of the dirt in the castor oil because castor oil is hard to get pure and for a part the burn of the oil itself.

Has nothing to do with a low oil or an high nitro content to do. Well..... for a part. If you run a high compression with a matching cold plugthen there is a slight cleaner burn.