Best method for cleaning an old engine?

[Elan 1600]

What's the best method for cleaning an old twincam engine prior to a rebuild. I bought it a while back and everything is grotty, shall we say. As its an early head (first 500) the exhaust side cam bucket sits directly in the head, but it came with an L block, would this be an issue at all. Is it a necessary to get sleeves fitted, as done to later engines? Is there anything to pay particular attention to?

[rgh0]

Before stripping an engine I clean it externally with degreaser. Then as i strip the engine I clean individual components and then spray critical machined surfaces with a corrosion inhibitor oil for storage in plastic compartment boxes. I mark or store in marked compartments all items such as cams, valves and springs and followers, pistons, rods etc so I know where they came from and can piut them back in the right place. Then I inspect and measure all wearing dimensions to determine what should be replaced and what can be reused.

Whether the aluminium bores the followers have been running in need to be sleeved or are acceptable as is, can be determined with the right measuring equiment. The tolerances are given in the manual. The followers wear in a barrel shape and the bores wear in an hour glass shape so you need to measure along the whole length to determine the wear pattern.

cheers
Rohan

[rideaway]

Hello,
On the engine I'm currently rebuilding, the cylinder head is of the type without sleeves on the intake and sleeves on the exhaust.
The wear in the aluminium was negligible, while the cast iron sleeves were badly worn.
I think that if there is no out-of-tolerance wear, fallowers directly in the aluminium are not a problem.
For the rest, I'm just thinking of fitting 0.05mm oversize followers to the intake, without sleeves.

On the other hand, I find that it's not easy to measure the follower bores accurately.

Regards
Stéphane

[Elan 1600]

Before stripping an engine I clean it externally with degreaser. Then as i strip the engine I clean individual components and then spray critical machined surfaces with a corrosion inhibitor oil for storage in plastic compartment boxes. I mark or store in marked compartments all items such as cams, valves and springs and followers, pistons, rods etc so I know where they came from and can piut them back in the right place. Then I inspect and measure all wearing dimensions to determine what should be replaced and what can be reused.

Whether the aluminium bores the followers have been running in need to be sleeved or are acceptable as is, can be determined with the right measuring equiment. The tolerances are given in the manual. The followers wear in a barrel shape and the bores wear in an hour glass shape so you need to measure along the whole length to determine the wear pattern.

cheers
Rohan

Thanks for that. Have you ever used ultrasonic cleaning or any chemical baths to clean any of the components?

[rgh0]

If I have to have machining work done on a block then I normally get it chemically cleaned in their baths. Other wise its degreaser and a variety of brushes and elbow grease. I do use spray gasket stripper to help remove stuck on gasket material

cheers
Rohan