Hey guys, Last night i got the heads and intake manifold off and everything is filthy and black. Also the top of the pistons are pretty nasty. Is there anything or any way to clean all of the **** off and make it look new again?
I would like to put everything back together tomorrow. I still have to go to the store and buy all of my gaskets, a 160* stat, and about 1000 other things LOL
Any ideas on the cleaning or any other hints would appreciated.

Thank,
Mike

 

cleaning the top of the pistons or the parts that you took off???

James

 

Here's what my 143k mile 4.8L looked like. My pullout 6.0 wasn't quite as dirty but I took brake cleaner and cleaned everything off as best I could. To be honest I don't think it really matters. I actually found a dead spider under my intake

 

actually both

 

You can get a scraping tool that has a single edge razor blade(usually used to scrape head gaskets off of the deck surface) and scrape the carbon buildup off of the piston crowns. Turn the crank until the piston is at TDC. You can hold your vacuum wand in one hand to pick up the debris while you use the scraping tool to remove the carbon. Don't forget to blow out any residual water from the head bolt holes.

 

You can clean the tops of the pistons with oven cleaner it works great....but its kind of a waste since your putting that 160 thermostat in.....the pistons will be carboned up again in no time. But I guess that really depends on your climate, driving habits and I see you have a blower too so ya I guess it will help cut down on the likely hood of some knock. I just see alot of guys with stockish engines running these cold thermostats and I think it just kills some of the effiencey of these engines by not burning all the **** off the pistons. Just my opinion

Alex

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm still trying to put things back together. I should be done tomorrow.
Another question I had was about antifreeze. How much do I buy and what mix should I use?
Thanks,
Mike

 

I say get two and then mix, I used the orange stuff.

 

when i pulled my 4.8 down that i was playing with till i built my ls1 i didnt have one bit of carbon but that could be because of the nitrous and all the mods lol but my ls1 that i built did have the same problem i just cleaned them up with some parts cleaner and a lint free towl and let it ride

 

SHINY
[IMG][/IMG]