Gents,

I just read through this thread and realized I never posted how we cleaned up the valve covers. We tried soaking them in diesel, but it could not dissolve the sludge that was clogging the inside of the baffles in the valve covers. So, I came up with another crazy idea, and it worked.

I own this really big stainless pot for boiling dungenous crab. It is actually a turkey frier, but I have never done a turkey in it, just crab during dungenous crab season (I'm in NorCal). I can do 10 whole crab at a time in that cooker, or, one valve cover....

Anyway, I had an idea that we would boil the valve covers...in Simple Green...and it worked. We bought a two gallons of Simple Green at Home Depot and mixed it up 50/50 with water. Fired up the propane turkey frier, and boiled the valve covers in the pot for about a half hour each. That water went from green to tan/oily/yuck in a few minutes. We did each valve cover by itself in the pot. They were a bit long for the pot, so we had to turn them after 15 minutes. The aluminum turned a darker gray color, but the PCV baffles were spotless!

So, file that idea/recipe away in the "outside the box" category.

I think I took pictures of it, I will try to dig them up.

Mike

 

Standard Simple Green on aluminum should be avoided if possible, however they do make some versions that are safe for aluminum. Here is an excerpt from the Simple Green FAQs:

"However, caution and common sense must be used: aluminum is a soft metal that easily corrodes with unprotected exposure to water. The aqueous-base and alkalinity of Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner can accelerate the corrosion process. Therefore, contact times for unprotected or unpainted aluminum surfaces should be kept as brief as the job will allow - never for more than 10 minutes. Large cleaning jobs should be conducted in smaller-area stages to achieve lower contact time. Rinsing after cleaning should always be extremely thorough - paying special attention to flush out cracks and crevices to remove all Simple Green product residues. Unfinished, uncoated or unpainted aluminum cleaned with Simple Green products should receive some sort of protectant after cleaning to prevent oxidation."

 

I did some reading on Simple Green before doing the boiling of the valve covers. It is not such an aggressive treatment that it would eat holes in the aluminum. But, it will change the color and oxidize the surface. Mostly a cosmetic difference.

The valve covers turned a dark gray color when we boiled them. We also boiled them in raw water to help clean out the baffles. They have been running ever since, no problems.

Mike