Ultrasonic cleaning : the benefits

[silverbullet]

I have got this early 1.9 VW exchange engine in
for an upgrade to 2.1 DJ spec. It was a leaky mess, thanks to having been assembled with the wrong gasket under the fuel pump spacer, which enablednit to huff and puff oily vapours since 1980 (it is remarkably original in almost every respect)
As per usual, I gave it a good scrubdown with brake cleaner before dismantling and then gave it to my local engine shop to put in their hot ultrasonic cleaner. I arranged to collect it when still hot (80°C) wrapped it up and rushed it back to the works to swap a few iffy head studs. Four were changed with no dramas!
Well, I cannot believe how good it has turned out. This has to be one of the best cases I have ever seen, its a corker.
From the top:

[silverbullet]

The benefits should be pretty obvious but consider that it just uses a hot detergent solution, so all the oilways (remove all plugs!) get cleaned out and there is virtually no residue left anywhere, just a little dusty fine sediment that needs brushing amd airline vlasting to clear away.
Old sealant, oil varnish, gaskets etc just falls off.
Also steel corrosion flakes will dropnoff, which helps to identify any suspect head studs...
Much safer than bead blasting and less labour intensive than soda blasting, it cleans more thoroughly.
Its worth searching out a business that has this kit. To give an idea if cost, I was charged £60 to clean this case, a pair of AMC wbx heads and my wbx6 heads with rocker covers. It saves time and returns better results than I could ever hope to achieve with just manual cleaning.

[davidoft1]

Good isn’t it, I’ve had stuff cleaned by my local engine place for years , it’s cheap, very thorough and very clean, I expect the case has benefited from being covered in oil all those years too

[Stesaw]

This is what I plan on doing with my 2.1 build, Once I've got the knackered studs out that is.

[silverbullet]

This is what I plan on doing with my 2.1 build, Once I've got the knackered studs out that is.

I always work on the head studs with the case hot. My approach used to be to use a big propane torch to locally heat the case, with it secured on an engine stand, then use a self-tightening chuck-type stud extractor, done up really red-faced tight and positioned as low as possible on the stud. My one is by Franklin tools iirc.

But by working on a completely hot case you can remove several studs in one hit before it cools off, as long as it is insulated. Transport blankets seem to work well.

[Stesaw]

This is what I plan on doing with my 2.1 build, Once I've got the knackered studs out that is.

I always work on the head studs with the case hot. My approach used to be to use a big propane torch to locally heat the case, with it secured on an engine stand, then use a self-tightening chuck-type stud extractor, done up really red-faced tight and positioned as low as possible on the stud. My one is by Franklin tools iirc.

But by working on a completely hot case you can remove several studs in one hit before it cools off, as long as it is insulated. Transport blankets seem to work well.

From the experience I had with head bolts I can see having the whole case hot would be a benefit for sure. I have one of those chuck type extractors, I managed to break two of the teeth.. cheap tat I guess. Still irritated by it but it did the job.. mostly 

[weimarbus]

thank you for posting this SB, do you have his contact details please, I have two cases that need cleaning 1x WBX and 1x Aircooled can't bear to spend more hours in the garage for poor results

[silverbullet]

Give me 36 hours from the time of this post and I might have aquired one though an auction on ebay for my business

[weimarbus]

[Stesaw]

Give me 36 hours from the time of this post and I might have aquired one though an auction on ebay for my business

Fancy pants

[silverbullet]

Well it looks like I've accidentally got into the cleaning business. Happy days, we were the only bidder!

A good way to celebrate Holman Engineering's 60th anniversary today

Once we've got it here and processed a few test pieces (cases, injectors etc) we will work out a pricing structure along with the T&C's

[weimarbus]

Well done, let me know when you are up and running

[silverbullet]

Finally got around to testing the machine! Put 20 x10 litre buckets of tap-hot water in the tank, which is just enough to cover the sides on the "basket". I'll need more to do a crankcase.
Added a splash of hard water conditioner and 5 litres of cleaning detergent, dont have a data sheet and the company doesnt exist anymore (Techtron, West Midlands) but it smells, well, like detergent! Vaguely dishwasher-ey.
Anyway, I put some pre-washed pushrod tubes in there, to see how the oily residues would break down.
Results: awesome! I could actually see the stuff breaking down and coming out of the tubes within a minute. That's at only 50% power.
Then tried a few sets of rocker gear, a couple of heads, a Jaguar iron gearbox case and a couple of ali bits (to see if they would discolour)
Everything was degreased and pre-cleaned of road dirt and black gunge before going in the tank.
The ali parts didnt go grey or back and the iron stuff really cleaned up well. Old paint just fell off the gearboxes after a few minutes, I am really impressed.
I'll shoot a video and post to youtube.

[Mr Bean]

I have experience of cleaning processes in an aerospace environment where I rode through the banning of chlorinated fluorocarbon cleaning solvents (CFC's). We had both ultrasonic machines and the vapour phase cleaners. The ultra sonics searching out the crooks an nannies while the vapour phase process - especially using CFC's being ideal for streak free drying due to the part being lifted through the condensing vapour getting thoroughly rinsed. Sadly the works instruction for disposal of CFC's was to pour it onto soft earth and allow it to evaporate - ,there goes the ozone layer :roll: .. Due to the banning of CFC's all sorts of cleaning equipment and solvents were attempted including terpene based solvents (extracted from orange skin if I remember right) and even a German made boiling isopropyl alcohol - IPA in which case the cleaning tank etc was recommended to be built on an outside wall in case it got on fire .
 
Were I to be installing a water based ultrasonic cleaning facility of any consequence however, I would investigate the use of softened water  so as to facilitate streak free drying and virtually zero scale. Well worth looking into. 

[bigherb]

Even the cheap eBay ones work well.