Overdue update!

[Tony Smith]

Great news with the Electrolysis Tank. Other members on here before have used electrolysis on various parts large and small with different chemical recipes, generally with good success.

I think this is the first time we've seen electrolysis for a complete engine block (rather than the more typical passive acid or caustic bath), and it looks like it has worked very well indeed. Could you post more info and pics on what you did and the process you used?

[Craig W]

Hi Tony. Thanks for your comment. I'd be happy to provide the methods & products used that gave these results. I'll also add a selection of photos, but I'll endeavour to do this via the laptop as I really struggle via the phone option. All being well I'll sort it out tomorrow after work.

[maple_leaf_eh]

I will never forgive myself, but can't stop laughing about it.

Bob Bergeron on the carrier forum took some of my advice and made a giant soaking tank for his seized carrier tracks. He used a child's wading pool and lined it with plastic. The coiled up tracks went in with the help of front end loader. All was going well until the molasses leaked out on the floor of his shop - in winter. He had about 4" of frozen slick molasses to chip, scrape and scoop off the floor! And, the tracks were mostly rustfree. He must have forgiven me because I delivered some tool boxes and we went for a flight in his airplane.

[Ron Pier]

Nice work Craig. We all like to see these pictorial restorations. My own engine/gearbox work was done before I had a PC or mobile phone and all I have is a scan of a photo which has come out blue instead of Ford Grey.

Regards Ron

[Craig W]

Making an electrolysis cleaning tank. Arm & Hammer Washing Soda was the detergent option as commonly recommended in several YouTube videos. We found a cleaning cycle of upto x20 hours is all that was needed, although I did carry out a longer cycle on the follow up 2nd dip. Around 20A power draw was observed during the initial clean but it dropped significantly across the duration of each cycle. I'm convinced that adding a uniform layout of anodes which covered all areas of the drum definitely paid off. The engine block was supported on wooden blocks in the base of the drum. Core plugs were removed to allow an improved circulatory flow & we occasionally used compressed air through a blow gun aimed directly through the water jackets. Results surpassed expectations.

[Tony Smith]

Thanks, excellent.

What strength of Washing Soda? ie Grams to Litres?

And what was your power supply?

[Craig W]

Hi Tony. I apologise for the lack of accompanying photos in this thread. Try as I might, it appears that the majority of images I attempt to attach simply won't upload? I think they exceed the megapixel data limit. Are you on Facebook by chance? If so I'll happily send you the selection of images (pictures paint a thousand words)
In essence, a full drum of water submersing the entire block, I added half a box of the washing powder, no doubt far more than required, but so what, it's very cheap & it's a detergent so it can only be beneficial? I had my heavy duty charger set on 12v low charge, but on initial start it drew a high 20-25amp. This slowly dropped as the hours passed, presumably as the corrosion was removed from the block & attracted to the anode bars the resistance reduced accordingly. By the time I was ready to lift the block & begin jet washing/rinsing, I was unable to increase the power settings which by the end of the cycle had dropped down to about 2amps.
As mentioned before, after x2 cleaning cycles the block looks like new. I'll be doing the crank next which has plenty of surface corrosion to address.
As I said, if you're on FB I'll happily add you & forward the pics.