Water jacket - How clean is clean enough?

[Yoyodyne]

I finally found a good 21 stud block to build and am cleaning it up to prepare for machining. Here are 2 photos of the interior of the water jackets. Is there anything to be gained in cooling by cleaning the last of the rust from the surfaces? I imagine that if I do, it will just rust again eventually. I don't have a Redi-Strip within driving distance any more, so I'd have to ship it somewhere to get it derusted, but I have a year and a half plus lots of effort and money disassembling and cleaning motors just to find this one good block, and don't want to short cut the prep.

The photos look more brown than the block looks to the naked eye, I think that's from the flash. The first photo is inside the block between the 2 center cylinders.

What say you more experienced guys?

[KiWinUS]

Any good machine ship should have a Sunnen type block cleaning machine , its a 3 step process , cooks, blasts with steel powder & then gets powder out , it will make your block like brand new for about $40

[svm99]

It looks pretty clean to me, how have you cleaned it? I use a 3' section of MIG liner conduit which is much like choke conduit and run it through every area of the water jacket I can get it with a good flood of water running also. I believe the block blast previously mentioned does a great job on all outer/exposed surfaces but does not clean the internal cooling passages much other than what bakes off in the cooking process.

Good Luck, Paul J.

[Yoyodyne]

It's already been baked and blasted. I'm trying to clean the water jackets. All the loose debris and foundry sand is out, all that's left is the scale on the inside of the water jacket.

Last step was soaking in hot washing soda and water for a week and pressure washing.

[Brian]

Yep; thats clean enough for me!

[296 V8]

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I know were your coming from after paying for bake and blast and it still looks like crap in there.
Iv considered making a water pump block off plate and filling the block with pool acid one side at a time…. before the bake and blast.

Iv cleaned steel with it but never cast iron … need to test it on something junk

[37 Coupe]

It is a shame that Redi-Strip processes are not available anymore at least in my area. There was no other cleaning on a blocks water jackets as good,it has been thirty years ago since I had two flathead blocks cleaned at the Columbus Ohio Redi Strip facility and blocks looked like new castings. Their process was not or never acid or chemicals but some kind of reverse polarity or the reversal of chrome plating that removed everything from metal that did not belong there,safely. I do not know why so many of closed down,some have told me the government, EPA but I never understood this as it was all supposed to be no chemicals,the solution was supposedly like Boraxo not an acid but an alkaline,mayby that is bad also. I do know this about 9 years ago I had a couple items I wanted stripped and called them in Columbus,took awhile to run them down as the phone # changed as did the location. I was told it was no longer the Redi Strip franchise but the same "safe" process,wrong it was acid etch and luckily I only had an oil pan damged as acid ate up the dipstick boss,they told me anything aluminum or pot metal was ate up right away,they didn't tell me this before. The acid also eats up anything left in to long as I saw a pair of rare 1939 Ford convertible doors damaged ,molding holes were enlarged to 3/8" and doors were thin. I have heard they have since shut down because overhaed beams in building were comprimised. So Redi Strip another great product gone right up there with Sisters Chicken and Twinkies.

[richard crow]

put the heads using the old gaskets if you have them .plug the rail holes stand on bell housing end fill with vinager let soak then drain & flush with water

[swedishsteel]

Once you get it running, fill it with vinegar and run it all summer. I have a Chevy Blazer that must have come from a warm state and had pure water in it for a while, because it had rust scale like you wouldn't believe. Three heater cores plugged up. I ran vinegar all summer a couple years ago and it took care of the problem. The water pumper crapped, not due to the vinegar as it had 235K miles on it, and when I took it off and looked inside the block it looked brand new. It takes a little time, but vinegar will take away the rust. Have fun. Rod