Ultrasonic cleaning of trusty rusty's coolers and valve covers

[s class]

I'm totally hooked on this professional ultrasonic cleaning process. 

first up, engine oil cooler :

BEFORE



AFTER



flushed, stripped, painted and pressure tested, all to aviation standards. 

[s class]

Now the engine radiator :

BEFORE



AFTER





Apparently the tranny cooler section was plugged and they struggled to get it clean.

[s class]

Now, the valve covers :

BEFORE





AFTER





All ready for painting.  Damn I wish I could leave them like that. 

[s class]

I also threw in the 450's valve covers in the same job lot :

BEFORE

sorry no before photos

AFTER

[s class]

Ultrasonic cleaning is far superior to media blasting on alloy components because it does not alter the surface texture of the casting at all.  Basically it comes out like a new casting. 

[Big_Richard]

those are some seriously impressive results!

Who would of thought just vibrating liquid could clean something so well. It kinda looks like an ultra high pressure cleaner has been spraying solvent its so clean.

[s class]

Its even better than that PB, it basically lifts out the oil residue that has gone into the pores of the casting.  So its super clean and dry - the best pre-painting prep I've seen. 

[macatron]

Its even better than that PB, it basically lifts out the oil residue that has gone into the pores of the casting.  So its super clean and dry - the best pre-painting prep I've seen. 

I could look at these kind of pictures all day long!

[chinny4290]

How much does that usually cost?

[s class]

I think if I was paying the normal aviation industry prices it would be very expensive.  I've got a good relationship with the guy that does this - I think he has taken a personal interest in my project.  As far as I have found out, it seems he is charging me about 50 to 60% of what he would normally charge companies. 

This most recent job lot was :

2 x strip and clean 6.9 valve covers
2 x strip and clean 4.5 valve covers
1 x strip and clean 6.9 thermostat housing cover
1 x strip, clean and paint 6.9 euro oil cooler
1 x strip, clean and paint 6.9 euro water/tranny radiator
1 x strip, clean and paint 6.9 engine oil tank

For that I paid around $200.  Some may consider it reasonable, others may not.  For me it is worthwhile because I don't have the time to try and clean stuff by traditional methods at home.  And I seriously doubt I would ever replicate these results.

The last job lot I sent in was my 7Jx15" bundts (5 of them).  They had multiple layers of old encrusted paint that I had been struggling to get off with viscous paint stripper.  This guy charged me around $150 to get them back to looking like new castings, again super well prepped for painting. 

[nathan]

you have some 15s???
show us the pic of the alloys post US'ing!

[Big_Richard]

Does the ultrasonic cleaning itself strip the paint off items or is there an additional step there?

[s class]

ultrasonics can lift paint especially if it is not adhering that well.  This crowd uses a combination of undustrial strippers, acid tanking, ultrasonics, etching, according to the item in question.

As far as I know, the valve covers were only ultrasonic treated, then briefly subjected to a mild etchant.  The wheels on the other hand caused them a lot of difficulty, and they went through multiple treatments with industrial paint stripper before the ultrasonics. 

[oscar]

Geez sclass, very impressive, just come across this thread. 

So the valve covers (6.9's) were black originally or were these the red ones or both 

What colour are you going to paint them and well,  who says you have to paint them anyway?  Not sure what I'd do.  The clean bare metal looks too good.

[Niclas]

The valve covers look great!

Ultrasonic cleaners are realy good.
While I was struggeling with cleaning the roto-caps (the axial bearings under the valve springs) I remembered that I have a little ultrasonic cleaner that has been lying on the shelf for ages.
The roto-caps are quite capsulated things and some of them were totally stucked due to old soot ang oil sludge. I tried to clean them carefully with ethanol and kerosene and a tooth brush but when I put them in the ultrasonic mashine lots of dirt came out. After two hours they were like new.

I used water and some stuff that contains citric acid, I don't know if that's the best to use, does anyone know? I first tried with kerosene but I realized that it heats up the liquid to about 70 degrees celcius (NOT centigrades) and it felt a bit flamable to have indoors...

The thing actually was made for cleaning the type of ink pens that were used to make drawings in the old days, so if your onkel is an old engineer give he man a couple of Long Island Iced Teas next cristmas and have a look in his basement

/Niclas