Has anyone tried...

[Superdave]

I have a 5 gallon ultrasonic cleaner at work, we paid big bucks for it but it's been used a handfull of times. The basin is big enough to fit in 2 heads... i was thinking about using a mixture of simple green and water, cranking the heat up to the 100-150F range and trying to ultrasonically clean a set of 3500 heads.


what do you guys think?

[CNCguy]

I was thinking the same thing Dave and have been looking for a large used ultrasonic cleaner for a good price (actually a cheap price). I think one would work great to clean engine parts but care should be taken to ensure that no damage is done. Dann at KillerB has a small used one and was talking to the Branson service tech about how to test whether it was working properly. The tech told him to use clean water, dish soap and drop in a piece of aluminum foil. He said, if it is working properly, that after 15 minutes or so there would be pin holes in the aluminum. Maybe the aluminum foil erodes easily due to its chemical/physical makeup and it would be a non-issue for heads. Just wanted to make you aware of what I have seen. Perhaps a call to the manufacturer would give you some insight on the proper way to do it.

[91LQ1Lumina]

thought this mite be of interest.

http://www.ultrawave.co.uk/news.php?id=2&nw=16

[Superdave]

Cool..

we have a Branson, i forget the model number now. It was purchased to clean circuit boards but always left a weird film on them so it hasn't been used. The cleaner that came with it is alkaline based so it couldn't be used on aluminium... we threw a Maglite in it one day and it removed the anodizing

I figured with something like Simple Green it shouldn't be a problem. Maybe i'll try a Gen2 head or something not as valueable first...

[3400-95-Modified]

I asked the guys at the machine shop and they said it should be ok, and would only have an effect depending on which solution you are using. And the aluminum foil note, thats probably due to its thickness and ability to flex in areas, and also the type of aluminum.

But yes, test your solution with a bad or not usable head first... see what happens.

[Superdave]

I put in a pair of ported gen2 heads today, they were overall clean but had alot of dust and sand from the blaster.. also alot of cobwebs.

I set them temp to around 55c and let them sit with the sonic on for 99 minutes. I used about 5 gallons of water and about a half gallon of Simple green. Needless to say, the heads were really clean after. There was all kinds of crap floating in the water, even aluminium particles from porting.

I expected more but overall i was impressed. Next time i'm going to use some better degreaser and a bit hotter temps.

[IsaacHayes]

simple green is that alkaline?

[Superdave]

simple green is that alkaline?

Nope, smells great though.


i have a 3000sq ft shop and the whole place still smells like it.

[pocket-rocket]

I don't care for the smell of Simple Green, but it does such an awesome job cleaning stuff that I deal with it. My garage floor is kinda porous even after I epoxied it so when I clean my floor, I mop with Simple Green (yes, I mop my garage floor :P) and it pulls stuff like brake dust, rust and oil spots up.

[kwhauck]

i just checked out a ultra-sonic cleaner at SEMA, pretty neat stuff, seems to work great, but they were cleaning at like 160 degrees, and only needed 8 minutes to clean some really nasty parts.......

[IsaacHayes]

A friend showed me this organic carbon remover. He put a BBQ grill in the solution to soak and it came out like it was freshly chromed! I didn't ask what it was though.

[Superdave]

i just checked out a ultra-sonic cleaner at SEMA, pretty neat stuff, seems to work great, but they were cleaning at like 160 degrees, and only needed 8 minutes to clean some really nasty parts.......

Nice.. any idea on what solution they were using?


After assembling these heads it was pretty apparent that Simple Green wasn't strong enough.

[ForcedFirebird]

Nice.. any idea on what solution they were using?


After assembling these heads it was pretty apparent that Simple Green wasn't strong enough.

Why weren't they clean enough?

I use Formula88, but it might suds up in the ultrasonic cleaner lol, but it will take the carbon off heads after a 48hr soak.

[Superdave]

Why weren't they clean enough?

I use Formula88, but it might suds up in the ultrasonic cleaner lol, but it will take the carbon off heads after a 48hr soak.

they needed a bit more cleaning after, i used some carb cleaner spray to remove the rest of the crud. Most of it was just stuff around the spark plug holes and crud down in some of the bolt holes.

[kwhauck]

Nice.. any idea on what solution they were using?


After assembling these heads it was pretty apparent that Simple Green wasn't strong enough.

i'll try to look through all the info i gathered at sema, but unfortunately it was a soap that they sell specifically to be used with their ultra-sonic cleaners.....