Piston Kleen, Removing carbon from pistons Options

[dknechtly]

I have my engine pulled apart for a rebuild. As expected the pistons were carboned up and I dreaded the chore of cleaning. I found this stuff called "Piston Kleen" and let them soak a couple of days. It took the carbon all off! Outside, underside, ring grooves. Some places I just wiped off a little bit. It did a great job. Saved a lot of work and potential piston damage. I just wanted to pass along the good info.
I couldn't find it retail anywhere. Just ordered from the web site. Free and fast shipping.

http://www.orisonmarketing.com/pistonkleen.html

Edited: I have plain old 1.7 original pistons. When I was researching this, I did see some of the cleaners harmed aluminum. This does not. Just gives you nice, clean, unscratched or scraped pistons.

[DBCooper]

Interesting. I grew up with farm equipment, some of it really old, general mechanic starting in the late sixties rebuilding cars and trucks from the forties and fifties, and in all that I've never seen a non-aluminum piston. This thread got me thinking, I'd just assumed all pistons were aluminum, has anyone actually seen anything else?

[ThePaintedMan]

Interesting. I grew up with farm equipment, some of it really old, general mechanic starting in the late sixties rebuilding cars and trucks from the forties and fifties, and in all that I've never seen a non-aluminum piston. This thread got me thinking, I'd just assumed all pistons were aluminum, has anyone actually seen anything else?

Yep. On my old Thunderbird and many old 5.0s the pistons were steel. I could have sworn the screwed up piston that came out of my dad's bus when I was a kid (also doubled as his ashtray) was steel... but I wouldn't have known any better then. The pistons that were in the 96 Chevy Cavalier that I was working on a few months ago sure seemed steel as well (rust on the tops since the car say with a blown head gasket for some time).

[r_towle]

Interesting. I grew up with farm equipment, some of it really old, general mechanic starting in the late sixties rebuilding cars and trucks from the forties and fifties, and in all that I've never seen a non-aluminum piston. This thread got me thinking, I'd just assumed all pistons were aluminum, has anyone actually seen anything else?

Yep. On my old Thunderbird and many old 5.0s the pistons were steel. I could have sworn the screwed up piston that came out of my dad's bus when I was a kid (also doubled as his ashtray) was steel... but I wouldn't have known any better then. The pistons that were in the 96 Chevy Cavalier that I was working on a few months ago sure seemed steel as well (rust on the tops since the car say with a blown head gasket for some time).

Nope, aluminum pistons, steel rings and steel sleeves as cylinders.
Aluminum cylinders do work, porsche uses them with a chrome (steel) coating.

So, the rust you see after a head gasket blowing out is not from the piston, it's from everything else.