Anyone Ever heard of Electrolysis ???

[HotRodPC]

Anyone Ever heard of Electolysis ??? The process of removing rust from metal parts using, water, baking soda or washing powder and a battery charger ???

 

[HotRodPC]

Here are some photos of the block I want de rusted. I had the machine shop hot tank it, magnaflux it and mic the bores. He says its sad this block has so much rust because it does not have a ridge and can easily be re assembeled with a hone job using the standard pistons IF the rust has not pitted the cylinders. Even if I had to bore .030 over, that is fine, I figured it would need it anyway, but my main concern is to get the rust out of the valley and out of the crankcase.
This is an Olds 425 Big Block I bought for $20 as a complete engine with the Turbo 400 still connected to it. It has sat in an open pasture for over 15 years. I had to cut the rods to save the crank. The pistons had to be drilled and broke into pieces it was so rusted up. But if anyone knows how rare an Olds 425 is using small bore lifters and 39 degree cam bank angle, then you'd understand why I went thru this much trouble.

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[HotRodPC]

Here is the start-up process. I am using a 55 gallon drum. I thought I would cut the top 1/3 off. But for a nice straight edge, I went ahead and sawzalled the top. Glad I did. The Block is taller than I thought, and needed more water to cover it than I thought. I first put 35 gallon of water, submerged the block, then had to add 5 more gallon of water and it covered the block by about 2 inches. I added a lightly heaped tablespoon of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda for every gallon of water. The side of the drum has markings for water level at every 5 gallon increments. Here are some more pics. The charger with AMP guage is pegged out at 10 AMP.

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[HotRodPC]

Here we are about 8 minutes into the process. (1st Pic). Then since it seemed to be working, I thought I would crank the charger up to 50 amp from 10 amp. Needle still pegged, but within a minute, you could tell the process was certainly speeding up. Looked like bigger bubbles and bigger white chunks of something coming to the top much quicker than on 10 amp. 3rd Pic is of 15 minutes into the process. 8 minutes on 10amp, then 7 minutes on 50 amp. Seems to be working. I'll be checking again in 15 minutes for a 30 minute update.

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[HotRodPC]

Went out to check on the process at 30 minute mark. Sometime from 15 minute to 30 minute. The Charger shut itself off. Hate protection circuits sometimes, and in the reading on the process at one of the links, it was mentioned this could happen to turn the amperage down if it does. So maybe its a good thing. So far 45 minutes in, it still working at 10amp and AMP gauge is still pegged telling me the Copper Coil Electrode is still clean and doing its job. Here are pics at 30minutes in then turned the charger down to 10 amps. Look at all the purdy colors. The green around the outside I am sure is from the copper electrode. The redish orange bubbles in the center I am hoping in the rust coming off the block.

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[HotRodPC]

AN hour and 20 minutes into the process. The flash kinda trashed the colors, but the outside edge is green from the copper electrode, and center is a funky looking reddish orange. I am assuming the rust thats coming off the block I hope. The charger still running fine at 10 amp setting but the guage has now dropped to about 3/4 telling me the copper electrode is starting to get dirty. It definatly cooking now though.

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[HotRodPC]

I went ahead and let the process run overnight in my driveway. I checked at 7:30am, barrell still cool, water still cool, cords and leads still cool. Everythnig fine, seeing occasional bubble coming to the top. The Amp guage dropped some more though. As you can tell, my copper being used as the electrode has gotten very dirty and that is why the AMP guage is falling now. I now take the copper out and clean the electrode to bring the efficiency of the process back up.

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[Manbearpig]

Do want to see how this comes out!

 

[HotRodPC]

So I took it out to see the results. Its not 100% clean. But I am still very impressed. I'd say 80% of the rust is gone. If alone longer, I think it would have done it. Where I also notice a huge differance is the water jackets and between the cylinders. WOW, what a differance. I have pictured the valley and the back of the block since they were the worst areas and you can see the huge improvements.

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[Manbearpig]

Damn that is a huge difference.

Do machine shops use a process like this when they clean up and hot tank engine blocks?

Crazy difference

 

[HotRodPC]

So after cleaning the electrode, and pulling out the block to check its progress, I was amazed at the difference. But still a little more rust I wanted off, so I put it back in with the cleaned copper electrode and let the process run for a few more hours.
Keep in mind, there are other tips and tricks that improve the process, but doing on differant items at differant levels, like this being the big one, and many parts in 5 gallon buckets, I find its an experimental process. You have to try differant things to find what works best. Some basic rules for example, DO NOT USE aluminum for an electrode. It will melt. I hear Stainless Steel works best. You can use anything as an electrode. It does not have to be copper. Some people even use a large bolt when working in a 5 gallon bucket to clean brackets. The process is cheap. Just have fun and experiment with it. I know it works.

 

[Manbearpig]

I'm going to have to try this out sometime

 

[HotRodPC]

Damn that is a huge difference.

Do machine shops use a process like this when they clean up and hot tank engine blocks?

Crazy difference

No, In fact this block was given back to me by my machine shop and told me it was junk. So I did this process and took it back to him. He wanted to know where the hell I got all these very rare motors. I told him its the same one. He said NOWAY, that was a junk block. He looked on the block where he stamps your invoice #, and said damn, it is the same block. What the hell did you do? I showed him pics of what I did, and he had to go wipe.

 

[HotRodPC]

So after letting it run for a few more hours. I pulled it out. I was satisfied with the results, so I immediatly sprayed it down with WD-40 to stop any rust from forming instantly. Because of the water and the process, yes, it will start to surface rust very fast. As in you can probably sit and watch it rust within minutes. I use WD-40 because it displaces water and get the water off the block but yet still allows it to dry. Once it dried, I wiped it down, sprayed it with engine primer on the outside. Left the valley and crankcase area unpainted but added another coat of WD-40.

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[HotRodPC]

BTW, I never did build this motor. Being that I was short the rods, and the block is valuable. I decided I'd build a more common Olds 455 instead. I sold that rare block just as shown in those last pics for $250.

Also, this is a process I did last summer, so if you're wondering how I got it posted so fast, it was because I copied my write-up from another forum and brought it here.