engine cleaner and paint stripper

[adam38654]

What is safe to strip the paint of an assembled engine without ruining the seals or anything?

Once I get the paint off the engine I might need something to acid wash the engine to brighten it up and get that mud stained look off of it.

[El Camexican]

Try coating the seals with grease and use a small paint brush with paint stripper to remove the paint. Do small parts at a time if you are worried about it getting on other parts. My experiance is that it won't all come off, so you may end up masking everything later and painting it with engine paint. Have fun!

[adam38654]

I can get the side cases pretty good while they're off but it will be hard getting in between all of the cylinder fins. Luckily it just looks like some thin silver spray paint but it looks like the cylinder is black under neath it so I will probably just spray it all silver again once I get the cheap paint off. What is a good engine paint? Autozone has some nice ceramic header paint but that would hold the heat in. I need to strip the carb also so I need something safe on aluminum.

[vartiak15]

gasket remover works amazing spray it on let it sit and use a wire brass brush and it comes off like butter!!!!!!! but mask off your gaskets if it assyembled because it is "gasket" remover, i have only used it when everything is apart.

[adam38654]

Could I sand blast the cylinder with the engine assembled? I will be pulling the engine to paint the frame but don't have a blast cabinet so I would just be using sand because I don't want to waste alumox or glass beads.

[falloutboy]

I wouldn't but I suppose if you had the SOB plugged up tight, you could

[El Camexican]

NEVER sand blast aluminium!!!!!!! It will be destroyed. Aluminum can be glass bead blasted, or shot with dry ice, but you are really looking for trouble if you try to do it assembled. Either disasemble everything and do a rebuild and 100% pretty up, or just soak it in WD40, wait a few hours (or a day) and then spray it down with engine degreaser and preasure wash it VERY well, let it dry, mask it and paint it with your color of choice. No need to strip it as that paint will hold your new paint better than anything else. There is a stainless steel colored paint out there (have the name somewhere) that looks fantastic, but any quality engime paint like what they sell at Autozone will work fine, just mask it well and do two light coats before fully covering the surface with paint. Too thick is NOT good. Don't paint it in the sun or it will look dull, but letting it dry there a few minutes after your done works well.

[zeeker1]

I blasted the fins with house-hold baking soda. Cheap and it did a good job.

http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthread.php?111068-185S-drivel&p=889988#post889988

[adam38654]

I thought the fins were iron. How did you clean the cases and what did you settle on paint and primer?

Is that just a regular sand blast gun and did you go with a smaller nossel?

[zeeker1]

I mostly used a mounted wire wheel on a die grinder. For places I couldn't get at I blasted. This was just an old solvent gun. It creates a vacuum to suck the baking soda up through the hose and out the little nozzle. Not real efficient but it did the job. Pictured is the primer for x-metal paint. You're supposed to top-coat it with a color to make it look like it's anodized. I've never tried the color because this is the "look" I was trying to get.

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