Clean Pistons

[jesus888]

I'm doing a 351 not realizing the pistons are aluminum I soaked them in parts cleaner now they are black with oxidation. How can I get them clean?

 

[broncnaz]

What parts cleaner did you use? its kind of iffy to try and clean them back up without removing material since the aluminum has basically been etched by the cleaner. Try a wire brush or brillow pad on the top see if its going to clean up. It might be best to leave the skirts as is. Worst case you might be able to sandblast them as a last resort.

 

[jesus888]

Thanks for reply, the cleaner is ZEP industrial purple

 

[DZap]

.........the cleaner is ZEP industrial purple....

Good.......I don't feel like such an idiot now....I'm not the only one who has done this......
only I ruined a CUSTOMERS expensive bicycle parts, not a bunch of my own pistons............

DON'T try to remove it...That stuff actually stripped old anodizing off and stained
the aluminum very deeply on my little accident.
You would have to take quite a bit of material off to actually remove the black coloring.
Clean them off and polish 'em up, but try not to actually remove any material.
Use really fine steel wool to polish them out, but don't get carried away.

 

[jesus888]

Thanks! That's the advice we got from the machine shop too