To remove the cam bearings, you need a special tool. Sometimes you can rent them at rental yards. I don't know if Autozone has one as part of their tool rental program. You can't remove them without damage. Plan on replacing them

 

I just did this on a 5.0 engine I got. I removed the plugs and screws on the block and the upper and lower manifolds were very dirty with caked grease. I tried simple green and pressure washer, with poor results. Then I saw on Horsepower TV them mention Easy off oven cleaner, so I got 3 cans, but I had my doubts. Sprayed it on and let it sit for a little more than 24 hours. This stuff cleaned 90% of the carbon on the pistons and cleaned the block. I did have a good strong pressure nozzle and that wiped a lot of the grease right off. I tapped into my water heater as it had standard spigot. For the do it yourselfer, this stuff is great. I then sprayed the block and cyclinders with WD40.

David H.

 

So far, cam bearings and press-fitted wristpins/pistons/conrods are the only engine components that I have ever had professionally installed.


Norm

 

I like the thought of the EASY OFF oven cleaner... Maybe this sounds better.

(1) Place block in tote and EASY OFF the whole Block for 24 Hours.

(2) Pressure wash it off with water

(3) Place Heads in tote and Easy Off them

(4) Wash them off

(5) Dry them off and spray WD40 on them.

--------------------------

Or do you think after the Easy Off still use the Degreaser (Simple Green).
Above sounds like some easy good results and quick too.

 

Probably just see how it goes. I found that I got to bare metal after Easy Off and a little rubbing the tougher areas.

 

I used the easy off for 5 min intervals on the pitons. Please see the attached image. Now... My question for the engine genius'es ... This engine looks like it was rebuilt and these pistons look new compared to older images i have seen online of engines that had theirs rebuilt.

Could this show that there are Head Problems? I dont even think in the time I have had this car that I have put 10,000 miles on it. It seems too quick to have this type of carbon build up.

Thanks for your thoughts....

 

That is a lot of build up, what type of driving do you do with the car? If you aren't driving the car long enough it may not be reaching the self-cleaning temp or the carb could be calibrated rich. Could you post a picture of a few of the spark plugs?

 

ok. I have never thought about that. Too Rich of a carbuertor. Also, I think we have a thermostat of 180 degrees. This car was just a daily driver and drived once a week. I will post pictures later.
Thanks!

 

I have been doing a ton of tuning on my engine lately with a Innovative Technologies A/F meter. What I discovered is my engine was running way rich at idle and not lean enough up top to clean it out. My pistons looked like that in 1500 miles before I installed the meter and figured out the problem. My motor would trash plugs after idling for 5 minutes but had a lean bog up top. My point is it does not take much time if you are running rich at either idle or up top to carbon everything up. I assume your plugs are getting trashed too, so I would vote that you have a carb tune issue.

 

I like your thinking. I did not really know that much on the background of tuning the carb. And it does make sense. Once I get the engine cleaned and placed back together, I will see if I can run the carb as lean as I can.

As a hint though, even if the carb is running rich, how does the carbon and oil get that bad... Does that still mean there is some sort of of something.. or is this all normal in that aspect.

thxs