Hey all,

As long as I'm making everything else nice and clean, any suggestions on the best way to clean up a tranny without taking it appart?

Take it to the U-wash with a can of GUNK? Get it bead blasted?

Looking for ideas that are simple.

Thanks!

-Josh2

All I know is them magnesium cases don't do well when exposed to salt water.
The Hurricane storm surge found both my extra 901 cases sitting on the bottom shelf
OOPs just a bit too low. now I have 2 junk cases and an intermediate plate that wieghs about 2 oz.

SO I would be careful of anything caustic or even remotely harmfull to magnesium

Okay... Not too worried about salt water at 5500 ft. But I'll keep the Nitric Acid on the shelf...

An aside about Magnesium, I'm having the fan shroud bead blasted along with all the engine tin for the powder coating. Mag won't take a powder coat, but I figure a can of clear Krylon should help keep it nice and shinny after they've been blasted...

So... any suggestions on cleaning a tranny?

Thanks!

-Josh2

QUOTE (jhadler @ Nov 30 2005, 02:59 PM)

Mag won't take a powder coat

Since when? It works for me!

Since the powder coating guy here said it wouldn't. I dunno, I would have thought anything even slightly conductive would work. But maybe there's a chemical reaction problem with Mag or somethin'

Either that, or they're paranoid about Magnesium fires in their curring oven...

S'ok, I like the look of bare metal there. Just want to make sure it stays that way...

-Josh2

Geting back to the topic...

Looking for suggestions on tranny cleaning...

Anyone?

Thanks!

-Josh2

QUOTE (jhadler @ Nov 30 2005, 03:12 PM)

Geting back to the topic... Looking for suggestions on tranny cleaning... Anyone? Thanks! -Josh2

I like gel engine brite, and foamy engine brite second (the gel is new and hard to find around here). Both are from Gunk. Make sure you plug your vent before you go spraying.

Once the rough stuff is taken care of, brake cleaner does wonders for getting the last of it.

take the chunks off with a sharp instrument and then spray with brake cleaner....power wash afterwards

QUOTE (bondo @ Nov 30 2005, 03:19 PM)

brake cleaner does wonders for getting the last of it.

then bead-blast, then clear coat ...

just remember that there is a vent on top of the tranny that you might want to plugg before you do anything like blasting ...
Andy

I just did mine with simple green and the graden hose/nozzle. 2 treatments with a cleaning brush on the second.

I'd steer clear of media blasting. I know some here have done it, but it's hard to imagine that masking and careful cleaning will keep 100% of that crap out of your seals. If you do go that way, maybe look into coconut husks or something that would turn to much and not harm your gears as much.


BTW, are the 901 tranny cases magnesium ? I was under the impression they were aluminum...

They are magnesium. It is a great material, but has a few shortcomings. BTW, powdercoating has nothing to do with conductivity, that is electroplating or anodizing.Try eastwood .com, they got all sorts of stuff

And magnesium isn't a "white" metal so it won't really polish like aluminum, but you can make it look a lot better than I'm sure it looks now.

WAIT! DO NOT USE ENGINE CLEANER CHEMICALS!!

They will pit the Mag case like crazy. Use something milder like JP's Simple Green and a pressure washer. It's going to take some elbow grease either way.

If you want a CW finish then Walnut is the best for Mag. Clean it up good before you go that route.

Drop that can of Gunk now...

I recently had it out of my car and used a fine wire brush (got it at Home Depot for about $5) that attahes to the end of a drill. I used one that was shaped liek an upside down cone to hit the larger areas and one that was flat to get into the edges with.

Since my engine had received a "sonic bath" while it was beiing rebuilt, causing the case and heads to look "polihsed" (like chrome), I figured I needed a shiny trans as well. Like the guys said, it won't polish up like aluminum, but it does get a nice shiny luster to it if you work on it.

I cleaned my tranny case using Fast Orange degreaser, brushes, scrapers, etc. Oh, and lots of elbow grease. Lots. Several hours worth. It came out pretty clean, but the gray magnesium remained gray. Not too exciting looking. But at least it weighs less with all the built up grime off.

Alright,

One more time. It's magnesium and it's coated with a coating called a magnesium "pickle". It's like a plating. Put reactive cleaners (oven, lye, acids) on it and you are going to remove it and eat into the mag. Scrub it with a wire brush and you will remove it or damage it. Mag can corrode like crazy and even if you are at 5000 feet and you get into road salt, better have protection on it. Sea air is the same. Learned this from the magnesium institute when I was making high precision mag parts.

Zinc is a recommended treatment for mag and I used a self etching primer (Dupont Variprime) with zinc on mine. A little silver paint and all looks great. Variprime sets up hard too. Mag would prolly work well with those moisture curing urethanes like POR. No zinc though.

Ken

So it's sounding like the best thing to do is power wash the sucker and call it good.

Beyond that, it seems like maybe a good dosing in a non-reactive solvent followed by a power wash and then a can of clear krylon might work?

I'm not looking for concourse, but I'd like it to look better than it currently does...

-Josh2

The book says use water sluble cleaners. If you are going to media blast it or grind it clean, you best paint it, as indicated above

What about mineral spirits like varasol?