Do we have to clean out all the black oil mark stick on the inside of the valve cover when we do the gasket change? (1 Viewer)

[zhloea]

Hi, I am planning to change my valve gasket, I saw a lot of pictures from the forum, some of them seems pretty clean and some of them still has a certain amount of black oil mark left there.

So Do we have to clean up all the black oil marks left on the inside of the valve cover before we install it back?
What tool do we use for the cleaning? steel wire brush or plastic brush? brake cleaner or some better product you would suggest?

Thanks.

 

[Malleus]

You can leave anything you find in there, but anything in there has a better chance of making it into your engine than anything on the outside, so it's your call. I wouldn't put it back together dirty, but that's just me.

Denatured alcohol is he most useful cleaner for grease and oil. Its high flash point means it won't last long and it will not leave any residue after evaporating, should you miss some when wiping down before reassembly. It's also the only cleaner that will remove brake fluid, does a better job removing brake dust than any commercial cleaner and so on, and so on. If whatever you find won't dissolve with denatured alcohol, use acetone, and then remove that with the alcohol. Acetone will leave a residue, so rinse it out before reassembly.

Don't mix the used alcohol and acetone. It won't explode or anything, but you can mix the used acetone, after straining it through two or three coffee filters (stack them together and place them in a funnel), with transmission fluid and use that as a rust remover. And, if you add a little parrafin to that, it'll remove rust and keep it from coming back. BTW, we used to use coffee filters for everything in the metrology lab I worked in, once upon a time. If it's good enough for an ASTM certified lab, it's good enough for me.

 

[zhloea]

You can leave anything you find in there, but anything in there has a better chance of making it into your engine than anything on the outside, so it's your call. I wouldn't put it back together dirty, but that's just me.

Denatured alcohol is he most useful cleaner for grease and oil. Its high flash point means it won't last long and it will not leave any residue after evaporating, should you miss some when wiping down before reassembly. It's also the only cleaner that will remove brake fluid, does a better job removing brake dust than any commercial cleaner and so on, and so on. If whatever you find won't dissolve with denatured alcohol, use acetone, and then remove that with the alcohol. Acetone will leave a residue, so rinse it out before reassembly.

Don't mix the used alcohol and acetone. It won't explode or anything, but you can mix the used acetone, after straining it through two or three coffee filters (stack them together and place them in a funnel), with transmission fluid and use that as a rust remover. And, if you add a little parrafin to that, it'll remove rust and keep it from coming back. BTW, we used to use coffee filters for everything in the metrology lab I worked in, once upon a time. If it's good enough for an ASTM certified lab, it's good enough for me.

Thanks. Could I use steel wire brash?

 

[gatormark91]

Thanks. Could I use steel wire brash?

NO NO NO. Too much chance of wire brush bits getting left behind and migrating around the motor. If you can't simply wipe it off with a rag after using a cleaner on it, leave it alone.

 

[Mike NXP]

You can purchase a rubber gasket remover wheel that goes on a drill or use an alcohol wipe to clean that gunk up. Getting the used silicone off is bit more challenging , just take your time.

 

[zhloea]

You can purchase a rubber gasket remover wheel that goes on a drill or use an alcohol wipe to clean that gunk up. Getting the used silicone off is bit more challenging , just take your time.

Good idea!

 

[JunkCrzr89]

NO NO NO. Too much chance of wire brush bits getting left behind and migrating around the motor. If you can't simply wipe it off with a rag after using a cleaner on it, leave it alone.

Yeah, definitely don’t use a wire brush. Fwiw, I just sprayed mine down with simple green and scrubbed by hand with a nylon brush. Whatever didn’t come off, I let it be.