Overdue update!

[Craig W]

Howdo friends. An apology is owed for my absence since joining the forum! My biggest issue is my restricted availablity of time, combined with accessing the forum Via my phone. The screen is less than forgiving compared with using the laptop at home. That said, all is well, business is steady & my project has certainly commenced. Whilst like many others we await the current global shipping madness to sort itself out, I've purchased a flathead Engine here in the UK to build ready for my MK.I* arrival at some point in the New year? As it turned out it was a golden find. Not only was it in remarkable condition, but on checking the engine number beneath the thick paint, we discovered to our amazement it was indeed out of a Carrier & manufactured around November '43. C81A
I've made an electrolysis cleaning tank at work & to date I've had some amazing results. After only x2 cycles the block now looks like new & absolutely no corrosion remains (especially within the water jackets) Progress is ongoing but I'm delighted with the early results. Please forgive my relative silence from time to time. I'll attempt to upload more photos as I go. Regards to you all.

[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.