Piston cleaning?

JD49B

Member
I've got my B apart for an overhaul. The top ring on one piston is completely missing, the groove filled with carbon. On the other piston the top ring is worn down so bad it is in two pieces! The pistons and bores measure good enough to reuse, but obviously the pistons need all the carbon removed, and new rings.

I've used a self cleaning oven cycle to clean carbon deposits from cast iron before, and wondered it this would damage the pistons? Any thoughts?
 
Back 20 years ago when I worked at Federal Mogul's Diesel engine power cylinder development lab, we used full strength
WISK liquid laundry detergent to soak pistons in for carbon removing. You had to be careful w/ aluminum pistons, but
should not be an issue with cast iron. Also, I assume WISK is not the same product it was 20 years ago.....
 
Is this a late B with gas pistons ? or all fuel pistons ? All fuel pistons have an extra groove at the top made to collect carbon and you are not to clean them out.
If they are to be cleaned out usually an old ring broken in half works good to scrape them out. Grinding the edge and even back grinding a notch in it may help.
If the ring wore that bad the groove may be shot too ? New pistons may be in order or at very least true up the groove and use a ring spacer to get the gap right.
 
Hard to find (as in also not cheap) a ring groove cleaner for these large dia. 2 cyl. pistons. Same goes for ring compressors, ridge reamers and valve grinding stones.
 
I have several H tractors. I put the pistons in my electrolysis tank.
They have the carbon collection groove that some say not to clean. The
tank softens the carbon enough to remove with a ring groove cleaner.
I figure that those grooves came from the factory w/o carbon and since
I'm redoing them to as near new as I can, I remove that carbon. Also
it's unlikely they will ever be run on kerosene again.
 
I would like to add, try Zest soap in liquid form (body wash). Probly the cleanest you are going to get, AND it leaves no residue. I use it to wash my greasy 'prints' off my glasses (in bar form). Just sayin'.
 
(quoted from post at 11:00:36 01/22/16) I've got my B apart for an overhaul. The top ring on one piston is completely missing, the groove filled with carbon. On the other piston the top ring is worn down so bad it is in two pieces! The pistons and bores measure good enough to reuse, but obviously the pistons need all the carbon removed, and new rings.

I've used a self cleaning oven cycle to clean carbon deposits from cast iron before, and wondered it this would damage the pistons? Any thoughts?

I wanted to keep an original piston from the 70 diesel on the shelf as a conversation starter.
One Saturday when Mrs B&D was away I put the piston in the dishwasher and set the controls to maximum mega wash.
The piston did not look a whole lot different but the white interior of the dishwasher was now black.
 
On hard packed carbon in the ring grooves, I use a fine toothed hack saw blade. Don't put it in the saw frame, just hand hold it, go easy, you can get most if it, then break one the other rings that fit that groove in half. use the factory end and finish cleaning the groove.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions!

Since the pistons are cast iron, I think I'm going to test what may be the easy way by running them through the self cleaning cycle in the oven. I think it will work for these cast iron pistons, but it would ruin aluminum for sure.

It works like magic on the heavy buildup on cast iron cookware, and I suspect it may work for the carbon on the pistons. We'll see.

(I do have a new set I can use if I damage these..)
 
Gonna make momma unhappy when you stink up the house. I used a wire brush on a grinder wheel. Don't use a lot of pressure , as to the groves , just break an old ring and use it to scrape the groves . Careful they're sharp .
 
The theory being that the groove full of carbon insulated the top ring from excess heat, which is not necessary burning gasoline with iron pistons.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top