Header Cleaning

[72Duster440]

Is there a trick out there to get oil that is burned into the headers off? Had a leaky valve cover for a while and it coated my header, now it's baked on pretty good. You can see it on the far one in the pic.

 

[dadsbee]

Yep! Enough hours you could buy a new set for the labour...
1969 Dodge Dart Swinger clean up

 

[CRUZE 418]

Your headers look to be ceramic coated, I too had this issue on a car that I bought. I just wiped that area down and shot it with VHT header paint, done.

 

[crackedback]

you can use the metal/alum polish that is on the cotton like media on ceramic headers IIRC. Used it before. Can't recall the name.

 

[gzig5]

I've got a set of coated Hedmann headers that got oil on them and I was going to try one of the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers on them. If that doesn't work, we have a bottle of polish we use to clean baked on crud on the ceramic cook top. It gets even really baked on crap off eventually and doesn't scratch it. There used to be some pretty good carbon cutting cleaners out there but the EPA took care of that for us.

 

[chrgdrt]

you can use the metal/alum polish that is on the cotton like media on ceramic headers IIRC. Used it before. Can't recall the name.

Never dull, comes in a dark blue can

Nevr Dull

Nevr-Dull Magic Wadding Polish

fiberglasssupplydepot.com

I’ve also used megiers mag wheel polish

 

[72Duster440]

Thanks for some ideas, I'll give them a try and report back with what works.


Here's a picture that shows the issue a little better, the header on the right.

 

[CRUZE 418]

Yeah, that's why I cover the headers with a cut plastic bag to keep the oil filter change away. In your case though, cover leak.

 

[72Duster440]

Yep, it was leaking during cam break in and I didn't want to shut the motor off so I just let it leak. The leaks fixed now, but now I have some clean up to do.

 

[dowboy1970]

Bar keepers friend or the never dull.