I hit the front of the cylinder block around the exhaust ports on the GS1000 engine with "Mister Muscle" oven cleaner today, left it on for about a half hour then just hosed it off, it sure made a meal of the burned on crap!
I washed it all off then it started to corrode like I expected, so I sprayed some "Blitz" alloy cleaner (49% phosphoric acid) mixed 50/50 with water, left that mess on for another half an hour, then washed it all off with soapy water.
It came up brilliantly! The problem with GS1000 engines is that the tach cable can leak oil if not maintained, and the PO just chose to ignore it, so the whole front of the engine was disgusting, and the oil had made it's way thru the air gaps between cylinders, and was all over the back of the engine, and there was a heap of the crap there, there was even crud in the electric starter bay!
The PO also had a thing for chain grease (pity he didn't have a thing for chain adjustment, the chain and sprockets are stuffed) so the area behind the sprocket cover had a mixture of grease and mud an inch thick in places! I sprayed some oven cleaner in there too, and most was dissolved, but I'll hit it again later to finish it off, as I ran out of oven cleaner.
Someone here said to be careful of caustic cleaners damaging gaskets and they were right, my rocker cover gasket really suffered from this stuff, but I need to replace it anyway, so no biggie. Everything else looks fine, and as the "Blitz" makes the alloy go dull, I'll get a can of alloy polish and give the covers a buff once the engine is back in. Cheers, Terry.
