Carbon Build Up

[dazee]

What is the best way to remove heavy & hard carbon build up on valves ?

[zeberdee]

I always use a bench mounted wire wheel .

👍

[nickwheeler]

I fit the collet chuck to the lathe, then use a cheap wood chisel to scrape them clean, finishing with some old DA discs.

Have a pic:

[stealthstylz]

Scrape the worst off with a sharp paint scraper then the rest with a wire wheel in a bench grinder.

[v8ian]

IIRC when I was a Pup, anything motorbike that was carboned up, like FS1E exhausts were soaked with caustic soda, which dissolved the carbon.

[dazee]

Thanks for the replies, I was looking for some sort of chemical treatment that would disolve the carbon.

[slater]

Caustic soda hot and concentrated will loosen it. Be careful tho as it will also dissolve you.

[dan95x]

Oven Cleaner is pretty good at softening, but depending on exactly what you are de-carboning you need to watch what you are doing (especially on Aluminium, as it will eat that too)

A combo of that and scraping/wire brushing has given me decent results in the past

[dazee]

Thanks to all, I'll have a go with oven cleaner and see what results I get.