How to Safely Clean an Engine for Respraying ?

awemawson · Sep 29, 2019

I'm reworking a large alternator set (110 kVA) with a Dorman 6LE engine - it's in superb condition and runs very sweetly but cosmetically it's a mess.

So I want to give is a blow over but first it needs a major clean up.

Problem is it's still attached to the Alternator which obviously needs to be kept dry and the engine and all it's gubbins is a very knobbly shape to get at manually. I've given it a good blowing off with my 'Road Compressor' which got quite a bit of the flaking paint off but not enough to call it done.

What I'd like is some sort of 'tubular wire brush' that I could connect to the compressor and scrub the flaky bits off - they actually exit with brass bristles but I can't find stiff steel ones.

Have a picture of the problem:

slim_boy_fat · Sep 29, 2019

Cover the important electrical connections in either cling-film, pallet wrap of even kitchen foil then spray a degreaser, then either agitate with an assortment of brushes or just let it dwell, then blast it with a pressure washer.

It's done with car engine bays all the time :thumbup:

Fire it up and let the heat dry it out afterwards.

zzr1200 · Sep 30, 2019

Soak it de-greaser, blast it with a steam cleaner with de-greaser in the water then clean hot water and let it dry, possibly blow excess water out with an air line. Provided the control boxes are fairly water tight you won't have a problem

ajlelectronics · Sep 30, 2019

I find that whatever I do, it's not clean enough! I tend to use the Screwfix degreaser after scraping the worst away. When dry, I go around it with brake cleaner in a spray bottle.