my 360 heads were stolen by machine shop

Idk why I was always under the impression hot tanking one striped it down to the bare metal and removed all the dirt grease and contaminates

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“Back in the good old days”.........
The really environmentally unfriendly chemicals used in hot tanks would strip off paint and carbon fairly easily.
It would also turn aluminum black rather quickly.
Pretty much all those chemicals have been killed off by the EPA.
I have a pressure wash cabinet(like a big dishwasher) and since I do a lot of aluminum heads, I use a chemical that doesn’t turn them black.
It hardly even touches most paint, and isn’t really very effective on heavy carbon either.
It’s primarily a degreaser.

I’d charge around $25 to run an intake through it........ but you wouldn’t be getting something back that was free of paint and carbon.
These days, to get that result....... some sort of abrasive cleaning is generally how that would get done.

Or, get out the paint stripper.