MTFCA Forum

I am redoing the engine on a 27 roadster that was restored but sat for 40 years. The outside block is rusty in places and there is a lot of rust in the water jackets. What's the beat way to remove the rust without damaging the babbit.

Shouldn’t be any babbit in the water jacket. To clean those out I take a couple feet of bicycle brake cable, chuck one end in a drill and fray the last few inches of the other end to make a wire brush on a flex drive. Feed it into the various holes in the block and head then get a load of all the crap you can shake/vacuum out.

At least your water jacket isn't filled with acorns like mine was when I started my restoration.

Good idea. I'll try it followed by some Wood Bleach. I am thinking about sandblasting the outside. To protect the machined surfaces and interior, I plan on replacing the head and valve cover with gaskets, plugging exposed bolt and spark plug holes, covering larger openings with cardboard cut outs siliconed to the openings, eg intake/exhaust ports, main bearing saddles, water inlet and gluing down the bottom rail perimeter to cardboard or wood and silicon. My goal is to keep out the grit from the interior. I'll blast with glass bead. What do you think?

Richard, if you have a bare block, sand blast is the way to go. If it is an assembled engine you will not be able to keep the grit out. First pressure wash the engine block inside and out, sandblasting a greasy engine will make it harder to clean up the grit and may adversly affect paint adhesion. A hot dip tank at a machine shop may damage the babbit so stay away from that.

Thank you, I'd planned on degreasing today. I had the same thoughts about hot tanking the block. Glad you agree with sandblasting. I have my concerns but can't see any other way to rid the exterior of some heavily rusted spots. I'll be very careful to seal the passages and bottom of the block. I've had a grit problem before from blasting away at a block. Like Scott says, Wisdom comes from bad experience.

Forgot to add, its a bare block. Sorry, I know that makes a difference.

The last time that I had to be with glass beads on flat surfaces, I used duct tape to cover finished surfaces. The glass beads "bounced" off the tape as long as I wasn't directly blasting on the tape.

You might try wet soda blasting.

Duct tape over surfaces you do not want sandblaste dis how the pros do it.

Of course, packing your water galleys with acorns really helps keep the rust
scale in place too.

What was your question, again ?

Someone recommended a few weeks ago oven cleaner before power washing. It may harm piston sleeves but may do a lot of good to the water jackets. It’s an idea. Frank

Only way I know of to clean out water jacket rust 100% is to have the block shot tumbled. I fail to see the wisdom in sandblasting but to each his own. Probably get better results just soaking the whole thing in a tub of Evapo-rust for a month. Doesn't bother brass, aluminum or babbit.

I tried Evapo-Rust on my T and it think the only thing that evaporated was the money in my wallet.

Considering the only thing holding many a T together is the rust, in the long run it probably saved you money.