engine cleaning

[Bootlegger]

 Fellow's I gotta OLD Fox 36 ball brng engine that is GUMMED up and I need to clean it without the anti freeze and crock pot method.

  What other method do you use?  Thanks a lot

[Bill Little]

Hi Gil,

I boil my engines about 30 min. using dishwasher detergent (not dish"washing").  I take off the head and back plate.  This has never failed to free up an engine.  Of course i use air tool oil after i dry the engine to keep away rust.

Thanks!
BIG Bear
RNMM/AMM

[Andre Ming]

Remove the glow plug and rear cover.  Heat in the oven at about 180 degrees for about 15 minutes or so. IF it is castor gummed, the heat has started the process of returning the castor to a liquefied state.  Once you retrieve the baked engine, using gloves, prop the still hot engine and start to turn it over. It should start to turn. Squirt some fresh fuel into the exhaust and the rear of the engine and continue turning the engine over.  It should loosen up nicely. Once it does, then clean out the fuel residue and treat with your favorite after-run oil.

[Ward Van Duzer]

Patootey, OK. Are you kidding? That's my cats given name! Sweet Patootey.

Ward-O 

[Jim Carter]

I just put a prop on the shaft, clamp it up with a set of vice grips on the engine lug and fire up the ol' monokote heat gun nice and steady until I can begin to move the prop.  Then repeatedly drip a little WD-40 in the intake, plug hole and prop shaft with a bit more turning back and forth until it's loose.  You may have to heat it up a bit more in between the turning and oiling but it should be all right in most cases.

[Jim Kraft]

A heat gun and PB Blaster works wonders. On Foxes though, you do need to take off the back plate and check to make sure the rod is able to move on the wrist pin as they are usually stuck. Get that free and you are good to go. Wash it out good with fuel and then after run oil. I use Rislone as it never dries out.

[George]

...take off the back plate and check to make sure the rod is able to move on the wrist pin as they are usually stuck. Get that free and you are good to go. Wash it out good with fuel and then after run oil. I use Rislone as it never dries out.

That is excellent advice for ANY engine that has been stored for awhile. If stuck, I like to hold the engine upside down and squirt a little fuel in the piston until the conrod/wrist pin bearings are covered. Let the fuel penetrate a few minutes if necessary then make sure the conrod is free to move on the wrist pin.

George

[Andrew Hathaway]

Worse yet, Fox engines with wire cir-clip wrist pin keepers tend to push the keepers out of their grooves if they're run with the rod stuck on the wrist pin.  The keepers then get into the liner where they cut grooves. 

[Bootlegger]

 Thanks for  all the advice folks, boiled the engine using dishwasher soap like the Coach suggested and it came clean, then sprayed P B Blaster on the wrist pin and freed it up, this way I was able to get the engine completely torn down..

  Again thanks for all the advice...

[Randy Ryan]

I just put a prop on the shaft, clamp it up with a set of vice grips on the engine lug and fire up the ol' monokote heat gun nice and steady until I can begin to move the prop.  Then repeatedly drip a little WD-40 in the intake, plug hole and prop shaft with a bit more turning back and forth until it's loose.  You may have to heat it up a bit more in between the turning and oiling but it should be all right in most cases.

Clamp it with Visegrips!!!!?? Argggg pleeze!!!!! Yer killin me here!!!!!

[Brett Buck]

Fellow's I gotta OLD Fox 36 ball brng engine that is GUMMED up and I need to clean it without the anti freeze and crock pot method.

  What other method do you use?  Thanks a lot

  Put the oven on the lowest possible setting, remove any external plastic parts, and put the engine in and let it warm up. It should be nice and loose, oil the heck out of it with Air Tool Oil to flush it.
 
  If it will move, I usually use lacquer thinner in the venturi.

    Brett

[Jim Carter]

Clamp it with Visegrips!!!!?? Argggg pleeze!!!!! Yer killin me here!!!!!

L.O.L.!!  Yeah man!!  Grab the mounting lug .... heat that puppy up with the heat gun, then rock and roll that prop!!  Won't turn??  Little more heat little more oil and a little more twistin' and turnin'!!