Kero gun

[Troyskie]

A few years ago Noel (Ribbert) suggest I get a kero gun to help with cleaning engine parts.

I duly went out and picked one up. They're really cheap, and plug into any old air compressor. But never used it (I hate the smell of kero in my shed). It sat with my other air tool bits.

I'm getting ready to re-assemble my 1100 engine.

As I'd wet blasted the cases to be ready for painting I knew there would be a little of the glass bead media in hard to get places. No amount of high pressure water seemed to remove them. I'd always find more once the cases were dry.

I also tried high pressure air on its own, same result, always a few grains when I look really close.

I decided to see if the kero gun would be any different.

WOW! Like WOOOOOOOOOOW!

A quick 10 minutes on each case and sump, voila! Perfect. Not a trace of the blasting media, even when I used a magnifying glass in threads, what I could see into the galleys, nooks, crannies etc.

An added bonus, a surprising amount of oil soot came out of the crank bearing oil galleys, the main galley, and even where I thought I'd cleaned the inner of the cases and sump, still more dark coloured oil residue came out.
I kept going till it ran clean each time.
There was also more caked on residue in the sump than I'd thought, despite (what I thought) diligent cleaning.

Thanks Noel for putting me onto the kero gun. Great bit of kit. The only downside is I now smell like I've been bathing in kero 

[oldktmdude]

   Troy, I don't often come up with a good idea so please give me the credit when I do! 

"Before I remove the engine I'm going to follow through on a suggestion from Pete and get myself a kero gun and see how effective that is."
   Regards, Pete.

[ribbert]

Haha, I'm glad you discovered it after all this time, I assume you remember it has an adjustable nozzle. Unfortunately, the cloud of kero mist is unavoidable unless outside (advisable) with a breeze and requires a change of clothes and possibly a shower before you'll be allowed into the house, or fed. I've also been told reeking of kero is a real passion killer.

For anyone who has stumbled across WD40's cleaning capabilities, the product is 50% kero, which is why it cleans things, but at half strength (diluted by other ingredients) and at 12 times the cost by volume. And, a kero gun is like a spray can on steroids. A great tool.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

A really good one costs less than $20. This is the one I use.



Noel

[ribbert]

  Troy, I don't often come up with a good idea so please give me the credit when I do!  

"Before I remove the engine I'm going to follow through on a suggestion from Pete and get myself a kero gun and see how effective that is."
  Regards, Pete.

OK Pete, given I have no recollection of making that recommendation to Troy (although I have done so here in past) I'm more than happy for you to take the credit for it (and the fact that you have it in writing), but I want recognition for putting slow cooked legs of lamb and rhubarb crumble back on the menu at Troy's manshed this year!  

Pete, you say you don't often come up with a good idea, IMO they don't come any better than giving me an excuse to ride to Bermagui every year. (FJ Manshed weekend)

Noel

[krusty]

Haha, I'm glad you discovered it after all this time, I assume you remember it has an adjustable nozzle. Unfortunately, the cloud of kero mist is unavoidable unless outside (advisable) with a breeze and requires a change of clothes and possibly a shower before you'll be allowed into the house, or fed. I've also been told reeking of kero is a real passion killer.

For anyone who has stumbled across WD40's cleaning capabilities, the product is 50% kero, which is why it cleans things, but at half strength (diluted by other ingredients) and at 12 times the cost by volume. And, a kero gun is like a spray can on steroids. A great tool.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

A really good one costs less than $20. This is the one I use.



Noel

I have one of those, had it for years but never used it for kero. I used it for spraying fish oil to rustproof cars. Cars don't seem to rust like they used to so it's been a while (like yonks) since I last used it. I may give it a go for degreasing. I have a bead blasting cabinet but I have never used it for internal engine parts.

[chiz]

These beads killed an engine of mine cause I didnt know. 30 years later I had it done again same engine put them cases through countless dishwasher cycles plus tons of air blasting and water blasting..... I will never glass bead ever again.
Chiz

[Troyskie]

   Troy, I don't often come up with a good idea so please give me the credit when I do! 

"Before I remove the engine I'm going to follow through on a suggestion from Pete and get myself a kero gun and see how effective that is."
   Regards, Pete.

[Troyskie]

   Troy, I don't often come up with a good idea so please give me the credit when I do! 

"Before I remove the engine I'm going to follow through on a suggestion from Pete and get myself a kero gun and see how effective that is."
   Regards, Pete.

Sorry bud! You are correct  .

Anyhoo, great bit of kit!

Yes Noel, I did fiddle with the adjuster. With the one I have, which looks almost identical to the pic, the adjuster is almost air only. I noted that too much kero and it didn't clean as effectively. It might be one of those occasions where less is more.

Next time I clean the chain I'll give this a go, but only on the outside bits, not into the middle.

Chiz, fingers crossed I got them all. I put the shift cam, shift leaver, shift forks, primary & secondary gears, crank & starter clutch back in yesterday, no crunchy feel so ..... fingers crossed.

[Troyskie]

These beads killed an engine of mine cause I didnt know. 30 years later I had it done again same engine put them cases through countless dishwasher cycles plus tons of air blasting and water blasting..... I will never glass bead ever again.
Chiz

G'day Chiz,

I had the cases ready to go together, and decided to put off buttoning them up so I would have a fresh start the next day.

Overnight I became pretty paranoid from your comment.

Well, you were right  . Different light and I spotted a just a few little sparkles off the beads. Not many, just a tiny few, but that is a few too many, and there must be more I can't see.

I've removed everything from the cases (only took 20 min).

I'll re-do the cleaning.
SWMBO would freak if I used the dishwasher, so it will have to be the pressure washer, compressed air etc.

Troyskie

[X-Ray]

And heres me trying to clean 2 years of oil from a slightly weeping cover gasket from my engine before trying to paint it. Using crappy Supercheap canned degreasor mind you. Thats it, while out tomorrow, back to Supercheap to get one of these fangled high pressure kero blasters, that should remove the build up by the sounds of it, 

[ribbert]

And heres me trying to clean 2 years of oil from a slightly weeping cover gasket from my engine before trying to paint it. Using crappy Supercheap canned degreasor mind you. Thats it, while out tomorrow, back to Supercheap to get one of these fangled high pressure kero blasters, that should remove the build up by the sounds of it, 

Ray, preparation for engine painting, imo, is one of the most over-thought processes out there. You've seen my engine paint and know how many km's it's done. All I do is kero gun them to get rid of oil and grease, spray it with diluted dish washing liquid (sink/hand washing type) because it cuts grease and gets rid of any oily residue from the kero wash then high pressure clean it. Anything still stuck to the engine at that point is staying there!
Then, 1 coat of proper engine enamel (I use VHT but I'm sure other brands work), no primers, etch coats, undercoats, nothing. If you're lucky enough to then put a few hundred thousand km's on it over the next 10 years or so, you will be rewarded with paint that's still solid and not a single flaking piece, despite a couple of serious overheating episodes.

Noel

[X-Ray]

Thanks Noel, that will be my process then. Canned degreaser and an old paint brush just is not working, especially in the hard to reach areas, thanks for the valuable tips,  

[JMR]

A few years ago Noel (Ribbert) suggest I get a kero gun to help with cleaning engine parts.

I duly went out and picked one up. They're really cheap, and plug into any old air compressor. But never used it (I hate the smell of kero in my shed). It sat with my other air tool bits.

I'm getting ready to re-assemble my 1100 engine.

As I'd wet blasted the cases to be ready for painting I knew there would be a little of the glass bead media in hard to get places. No amount of high pressure water seemed to remove them. I'd always find more once the cases were dry.

I also tried high pressure air on its own, same result, always a few grains when I look really close.

I decided to see if the kero gun would be any different.

WOW! Like WOOOOOOOOOOW!

A quick 10 minutes on each case and sump, voila! Perfect. Not a trace of the blasting media, even when I used a magnifying glass in threads, what I could see into the galleys, nooks, crannies etc.

An added bonus, a surprising amount of oil soot came out of the crank bearing oil galleys, the main galley, and even where I thought I'd cleaned the inner of the cases and sump, still more dark coloured oil residue came out.
I kept going till it ran clean each time.
There was also more caked on residue in the sump than I'd thought, despite (what I thought) diligent cleaning.

Thanks Noel for putting me onto the kero gun. Great bit of kit. The only downside is I now smell like I've been bathing in kero 

Did you clean things before blasting and did you seal off all passages and bolt holes well before bead blasting? Just asking..... I've never experienced those problems and I have blasted dozens of cases and hundreds of of heads though I have protocol.

[Troyskie]

Did you clean things before blasting and did you seal off all passages and bolt holes well before bead blasting? Just asking..... I've never experienced those problems and I have blasted dozens of cases and hundreds of of heads though I have protocol.

Not effectively mate. Once I removed my plugs etc I found areas that were full of the glass media.
My half arsed plugging & sealing was compounded by my half arsed pressure washing, pushing it further into other places.
I spoke to a mechanic this morning & asked him, his solution is, once degreased from the kero, heaps and heaps of compressed air.

[Troyskie]

Glass media removed.

I degreased and spent a fun couple of hours with the compressor and blasted the cases with dry air.

I checked everywhere I could and in the sun not a spec anywhere.

The sun proved to be the best light. Even my brightest work lights didn't show up the glass beads as well as the sun.
In the sun they stood right out. Any sign of even one little sparkle or speck, I blasted the whole lot again.

I didn't have the water filter thingy on the compressor outlet at first, but put it on when I noticed some condensation dripping from a connector. That made the job a lot easier.

JMR, fingers crossed.
Chiz, as above.

Problem solved.