I have the head off and I thought I'd clean up the top of the pistons and cylinder walls.

What the best way to do this without damaging anything?
Should I use a chemical, sand paper, or just a wire brush?

Thanks

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"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."

You should be ok with a wire brush, but I'd also want compressed air and a blower nozzle handy, in order to get the loose crud out from between the cylinder walls and tops of pistons.

Roger

Personally, I don't mess with that #$^& in any substantial way. A friend of mine ruined his 383 bores after wire wheeling off the carbon during a head swap.

I just rotate the engine around several times, periodically wiping the cyl walls down of loose crud and vacuuming several times during the cycles. Getting anything stuck in between the pistons/walls will be bad news.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Go to your local dodge dealer buy a can of combustion chamber cleaner. Spray it on the pistons and let it soak for awhile the carbon will wipe right off. Be very careful with the stuff and use a lot of ventilation this stuff will mess you up in a hurry. Last time I cleaned pistons with I felt so sick the next day I could hardly move very nasty.

When I bought my car, the deceased man's son told me his dad rebuilt the motor. I never did get any paperwork.

After I cleaned the pistons, I saw ".040" stamped on top of each one. That means 40 over, right?

I'd say that's good for about 5 HP.

Of course I had it all along, but it's nice to know that the motor has been rebuilt.

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"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."

Did you try the combustion chamber cleaner or a mechanical method?

I used a wire brush on a drill at low speed with a shop vac.

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"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."

This is correct. When I had my head off, I sprayed the piston crowns with WD40 and allowed to soak overnight. Then removed loose carbon with a scraper. Blew compressed air between ring lands and bores to blow out residual carbon. Rotated engine over wiping bores as pistons passed TDC. You must make every effort to remove all carbon from pistons/bores or you will compromise your ring seal.

Mitch

Leave it on, the extra compression will do you more good than a clean top on the piston that you won't see again once you put the head back on

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"Former Owner" of '65 Barracuda, 225, Auto, MP 2bbl intake, MP cam, Dutra Duals. Presently Moparless.

Even after doing all this, you still run the risk of raising the combustion chamber seal to the point that you will increase blow-by past the old rings. A partial rebuild, with just doing the heads, seems to never work out in the end. The money you thought you saved, will be spent doing the job over when you have to tear the engine down to do the rings, the bores, the bearings...