How To Clean Cast Iron Cylinder Heads

After you begin to feel comfortable using your die grinder and abrasive rolls completely clean your good engine heads.

How to clean cast iron cylinder heads. Fill the second tub with warm water. Removing rust from cast iron heads and blocks usually requires a mild acid such as citric acid or phosphoric acid. Put the cylinder head in a large tub or container so that you can work on it. The heads shown in this story are cast iron heads off of restoration projects not a race car but we used these to show just how bad heads can be corroded if this cleaning process is not. It will start to rust right away.

Another cleaning alternative is to use a soft blast media such as plastic beads walnut shells or baking soda to clean both cast iron and aluminum castings. Baking soda has proved to be an effective cleaning media on cast iron and aluminum and can be used dry or mixed with water to create a cleaning slurry. Make sure the tub is tall enough to allow the cylinder head to be completely submerged in water then fill it with enough water to completely cover the head. If you are working on aluminum heads remember that aluminum will abrade much faster than cast iron. I find if you apply it with q tips and rub the area with scotch bright pads or steel wool scratches and reapply when it stops bubbling and reapeat till gone dont leave the cylinder alone.

You may want to do the following step outdoors or in a room with a drain. After you scrub your cylinder heads fill the second tub up with warm water. Remove old head gasket material from bottom of head. Cleaning the cylinder heads can be a dirty process and can be quite time consuming. Th ey will need to be cleaned using an abrasive blaster wire wheel brushes or taken to a shop to be hot tanked.