Clean piston top and lands? 74/360

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Rice Nuker

Rice Nuker

Let the Coal Roll!
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Happy Friday to all fellow Mopar enthusiasts!

Well, got a 74 360, doing a basic overhaul and head work. The motor has 123k and runs smooth and clean like a top.

Want to clean the pistons nice. I want to clean the lands and the tops and the skirts.

Can I soda blast them? Will the soda clog up or cause abrasive action in the pin interface to the piston.

I found one total thread on here that had "clean pistons" in the subject.

The thread suggested brake cleaner spray and also soak in water a few other ideas.

So I am asking people in the know.

Has anyone tried transmission fluid soak? Maybe in a hot croc pot of transmission fluid? Anti-freeze in a crock pot?

Heard antifreeze cleans carbs great. I heard pine-sol in a crock pot cleans carbs great too. I've never tried anything on a carb other than a hammer:violent1:.

The lands are the biggest concern, because I have seen lots of people say use an old broken ring and scrape the crud out of the land groove. Sounds crude as hell and sounds like I will end up with a land groove which is out of tolerance. I understand fully that you cannot wire wheel majority of the piston due to deformation so.

Thanks!
 
I had cleaned up a couple sets of pistons with a soda blaster. It worked excellent.

I think I posted a thread on the soda blaster probably over a year ago. Also on the pistons I ended up selling on here.

The soda blaster works really great for cleaning dirty carbon covered parts without damaging the part or original metal finish.
 
Don't blast them unless they are off the rods. You'll never get the blast media out from in between the pin and the piston. See if a shop has a sonic cleaner, that works great for cleaning carbon off of pistons and such. A long dip in a carb clean chemdip bucket works too.
 
I scrubbed the crap out of mine in the parts cleaner, took a long time and a ton of elbow grease but it worked. Snapped a piston ring in half and cleaned the ring lands with that. use the unbroken side and put a hose over it or you WILL cut your hands.

It was a ton of work, probably spent 30-40 hours cleaning.I just did it that way because its all i knew. Hot atf might be the ticket if it is still on the rod. soda blasting sounds like a good trick but, I agree the media will get into everything. either way good luck.
 
Use some original formula EASY-OFF, the one that is not Fume free,
it work's better. You'll just have to use trial and era, to see how long to leave it on..... then spray off with water. Hot water maybe better than Cold water, I'm not sure. Good luck
 
I just soda blasted a ford carb thru every passage and the entire outside. I am sold on soda. Removes all varnish, carbon, rust, paint and grease, does not phase the aluminum. The rust was very light on some butterflies and levers, was totally blasted to bare metal.

Also, I have found that soaking alum carbs submerged in pinesol is amazing on carbon and varnish. We soaked another ford carb in pinesol and it came out spotless after 3 days. So, I may do this too on some pistons before soda blasting.
 
Rice Nuker said:
I just soda blasted a ford carb thru every passage and the entire outside. I am sold on soda. Removes all varnish, carbon, rust, paint and grease, does not phase the aluminum. The rust was very light on some butterflies and levers, was totally blasted to bare metal.

Also, I have found that soaking alum carbs submerged in pinesol is amazing on carbon and varnish. We soaked another ford carb in pinesol and it came out spotless after 3 days. So, I may do this too on some pistons before soda blasting.
Click to expand...

Me too, I use it on just about every little dirty greasy part I encounter. Yesterday I used it on a coil bracket. Left the original galvanized finish looking new.:D
 
When I'm cleaning pistons, I go to AutoZone, get a can of Berryman dip parts cleaner. It's very aggressive on carbon, paint, skin. Let them sit, 15 to 30 min each, use a broken ring to scrape carbon out of the ring lands IF needed; usually I just rinse them in hot water. Also gets the carbon build up on the underside of the piston crown.

Good luck,

Jim Burch
 
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