Anybody got any better ways to clean up smoke residue from the inside of an engine other than warm water and Dawn?
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The factory recommended Vaseline for cleaning the body. I should ask from where you want to remove the residue.
Do you have it apart?
I melt the stuff that gets everywhere with a heat gun or a soldering iron. Be careful where you point it.
Have you tried denatured alcohol? It shouldn't harm anything. Just keep it away from stamped numbers and letters. Be careful. It's flammable, but evaporates quickly.
Test it. Perhaps warming the residue like RoyBoy does and then a wipe with the alcohol will remove it faster as it will be softer.
Why bother?
A dry soft paintbrush usually does the trick
A very hot water bath....the stuff just floats away.
Last one I did was the smoke unit from an old neglected 681 steamer. Removed the smoke chamber/piston mechanism. Heated a pan of water to just below boiling. Dropped the parts in. A while later removed them....all clean, with the smoke residue floating in the water. Gently poured a bit of the hot water down through the inside of the boiler where some pellet residue had accumulated. All gone.
Put a new heater element/pad into the chamber. Re-assembled. Added a few drops of Mega-Steam. ....And it blew the most beautiful, perfect smoke O-rings I'd ever seen from an engine!!
What a hoot!
FWIW, always...
KD
C W Burfle posted:Why bother?
exactly, other than reaming out the air passage into the unit. just scrape it down and reuse it, it works just like pellets in a different shape. be careful though as there is also a piece of asbestos in there under the element.
be careful though as there is also a piece of asbestos in there under the element
I don't think the smoke unit gasket or liner has ever positively been identified as asbestos. But why take a chance?
You can also use heat from a hair dryer or heat gun to melt away smoke unit residue, or to melt the smoke stuff that is causing a smoke unit under repair to be stuck closed.
I agree with RoyBoy.
Back in the early 1950's, I remember my father telling my brother and me about using Vaseline to remove the whitish smoke residue from the smoke stack and body of the locomotive, around the area of the stack.
Our father read it, to us, from a little note that Lionel used to pack in the box with the train set.
Ralph
Great responses. Thanks to all. A really super forum.
Gene
