Hello,

Can you please tell me how to remove and what cleaning kit to use in order to remove marks in the outer casing of the engine that developed from road salt?

Please see the attached photo and advise me what is the best i can to clean the casing





Thanks
Chris

 

WOW! That looks pretty bad.

 

Try a heavy degreaser like megs super degreaser or something. And a lot, LOT of elbow grease..

 

If degreaser doesn't work, I'd try some #0000 steel wool. If that doesn't get it, bump up to #00 steel wool.

I don't think I've ever seen a diff. cover get quite that bad. I'm confident you can make it look nice again, but it probably won't be a real fun job.

 

Use a buffing wheel.

 

God that looks GREAT.

 

Can you saw me one?

Chris

 

Too much work. I'm doing another one now and it is truly too much work.

 

The diff cover is aluminum, which oxidizes in air and creates a white powdery residue that is very had to remove. So basically to get the diff cover looking like new, you will have to strip it with a wire brush or buffing wheel or sandblasting of something like that. Further, it will go back to looking that bad in the future if not maintained, and some oxidizing is inevitable.

Polishing helps to reduce the formation of oxides in this case because it actually reduces the surface area of the metal, leaving less areas for oxide to form and to stick to. But even polished Al will oxide quite easily.

BTW, the oxide serves to protect the metal :/

Another option is to spray paint it. I have used some aluminum color paint for calipers and such that make the part look like brand new cast aluminum, and lasts for a long time... if interested I'll look it up...

 

Haha.. yea, I was thinking you should just paint it