Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Best way to clean cylinder heads?

Anyone know of a really good way to clean the carbon off of the top of the combustion chamber in the cylinder head? I have my engine apart at the moment and I'm getting ready for re-assembly but I want to get the combustion chamber as clean as I can before I start burning gas and dirtying it up again. I've been trying some degreaser and it's been working well on the pistons but they're a lot easier to soak than the head.

I just use cleaner with a wire brush for Fe heads and start with a plastic one for Al heads . Don't wanna gouge it up with steel if it's an Al head .

I very carefully scrape with the round end of a hacksaw blade to get the heavy stuff of if there is any. Then wire cup brush on a die grinder. be careful not to put scratches in the head with the hacksaw blade as that will create spots for carbon to adhere to and stay off the gasket surfaces with the brush.

SeaFoam...
Gas (and a match)
Torch
Sand blast...
Oven cleaner...
fingernail(s) lots of them
yute spit (peels paint too)
yute pi$$ (on second thought...DON'T use this it's FAR to caustic!)

A little off topic - I've read a number of times about people trickling distilled water into a running engine to "steam clean" the carbon out. I've always been too chicken to try it, as water does not compress - no how, no way. Imagine figuring out a plausible story if it went wrong...

"Geez - Why did the con rods blow right down through the oil pan, with the car sitting in the driveway"

"I - er - uh - it - um, I dunno!"

I have done it but can't tell you what if any good it did since I never looked in the combustion chamber after.

I have a small metal brush attachment on my Dremel that is meant for cleaning soft metals but I was a little gun-shy about using it. Sometimes if left unsupervised I can get myself into trouble. I may have to give that a shot tonight and take it real slow. Thanks for the tips.