Head cleaning for head gasket replacement at home

[beamer9]

Hi All,

I wanted to share some useful cleaning information for head cleaning, if you are home, and can't make it to the machine shop for an acid bath.

I read a lot of tips online, and initially decided to try using brake cleaner, and dawn. Due to the major carbon buildup on the pistons and valve surfaces no scrubbing in the world seemed to make a difference. Due to the head being aluminum, I was limited to no scrubbing. The valves must of had a couple mm of carbon buildup after 200000 miles. Replacing valves was not an option, and yet I couldn't put the head back on with all that carbon on the valves.

After the brake cleaner fail I scraped the surface of the valves. Layer after layer scraped off never making it to the metal. I read somebody online suggested soaking a head in simple green, hot water and letting sit overnight. It worked wonders on the carbon. It literally was gone and fell off or a thin powder layer wiped off.

Unfortunately, simple green made a mess of the oil leaving a thick dirty coat on everything.

No problem, hot water and a dawn dish soap soaking followed by a thorough scrub with a plastic bristle brush should do the trick.

Thanks,

Aaron