1941 Engine Block

[Guest Kens41Buick]

The question I have is, is there a way to boil out a complete engine, ie with crank and pistons still installed? I have opened up a 1941 Buick engine and everything looks okay but definitely needs cleaning.What are my options?

[Bill Stoneberg]

If you have the head off and the oil pan off you might as well go the rest of the way.

Those straight 8 engines have a nasty habit of getting deposits in the water jackets and passageways. The best way I have found is to boil them and then usea gun cleaning set to make sure. Both of which are much easier apart.

Besides, aren't you going to check all the clearances ?

[Guest Kens41Buick]

Yes, I discussed this with my father, Retired from G.M., and that he stated I should check all the clearances. Can I leave all the cam bearings in or do they have to be removed? Thank you for the information.

[Guest]

Make sure you remove all the core plugs and clean out the water jackets. By the way dunking, soaking, tanking etc will not clean these deposits. This is a manual job with picks and shovels but it is worth it because you will never have a problem again with overheating as long as you use a 50/50 water antifreeze mix and change it every three years.

Packard said "ask the man who owns one" well with Buick propensity to over heat "ask the man who has neglected one".

[Guest Bob Call]

You can't be too clean when rebuilding an engine. Completely disassemble the engine. Remove all core plugs (freeze plugs) and pipe plugs in the block. You don't have to remove the cam bearing before you take the block to be hot tanked, the caustic solution they cook it in will destroy the cam bearings and anything else not cast iron or steel. Strip down the head and have it hot ranked also. Get an assortment of brass gun cleaning brushes and rods and after getting the block and head back, run the gun brushes in all of the oil passages. Use a solvent with the gun brushes like diesel fuel or kerosene. Flush the coolant passages with plenty of water, use a small orifice nozel on the water hose to get a much pressure as possible and use as stiff a bottle brush as you can get into the coolant passages. After all of this is done and everything is clean as possible, wash it all with HOT soapy water and then dry with clean rags and compressed air. Then immediately spray un-machined surfaces with a high temp primer as the clean iron will start to rust immediately. Finger prints on the clean iron will rust fastest. Wipe all machined surface with a good protectant oil like gun protectant oil. Motor oil and the like is sticky and will attract and hold dust and dirt.