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| Descaling aluminium? |
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| Manxmodder:
Ade, have you tried a powerful pressure washer to see if it will shift the crud from the water jacket? I've often used a rotary pencil nozzle on a powerful K'archer for cleaning blocks,heads and found it very effective.....OZ. |
| RussellT:
Hi Ade It's been a long time since I did chemistry but as I recall. Aluminium is very reactive - if it is clean enough it reacts with water. However it's normally coated with oxide which prevents it reacting. Sodium hydroxide/caustic soda dissolves the oxide so the aluminium is then open to attack. Most acids don't dissolve the oxide. The question here is what are you trying to dissolve. If it's aluminium oxide then I think it's inevitable that anything that's effective will attack the aluminium. If it's limescale you're probably OK with what you're trying. If you've got the liners out you presumably have good access to the water jacket. How about bead or soda blasting. There are a few web pages describing home made soda blasters. Russell |
| BenH:
I have cleaned a Vauxhall 8v head in my phosphoric acid derusting tank before, it removed the scale fine but did darken the Aluminmum quite a bit. But that might be as I forgot it was in there and sat for a couple of days and had been used before for derusting steel, most of it came off with a good jetwash though and the mix was quite dilute. Why not try it on the water pump housing first if that the same and see if it's ok? |
| AdeV:
Thanks chaps, all good ideas - I think the phosphoric sounds like it's worth a try. Ben - trying it on the water pump first is a great idea - that part is sacrificial anyway, as it's going to be replaced with a blanked off item, the water pumps will be external electric ones... thanks for that. I wonder what sort of concentration would be best... the stuff I have is 76% IIRC, so maybe a 10:1 mix with water... I'll possibly give that a try tomorrow :) I'm going to have to soda blast the outside, some of the crud is just too thick to shift with solvents, and it's already been jetwashed, and it's stil filthy... |
| krv3000:
hi well this is my tip washing up pawder |
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