Good evening one and all,

Has anyone any tips about cleaning, and keeping clean, the various aluminium parts on the engine? Rain water entering the engine bay through the louvres when static, combined with rain being thrown up from the road, leaves everything aluminium a dirty grey with white spots. I know its not a Fiat problem - every aluminium engine must suffer this, but I never see a specific cleaner advertised or recommended. How do you keep your's clean?

Cheers

Ian

I've done a bit of this.

Varied results. Different approaches to castings as opposed to other aluminium parts (pressed/bent/machined).

No matter how you clean and polish aluminium, it will oxidise again unless you seal it.

With castings,you can clean them with brake/carb cleaner and brass wire brushes. Using a Dremel takes away the tedium here.

If they're really horrid (& you have the facilities) you could bead-blast them. I've never done this myself, but I have seen pieces of peach stone used in the blaster for the final pass to give a hazy (not polished) effect.

Once done, you have a number of coating options:

1. Anodizing. This doesn't work too well on castings as it can have an uneven finish.

2. Lacquer spray. Good result, doesn't like heat. Not very long lasting in my experience.

3. Sounds crazy, but PAINT (prime 1st). Use a high temp resistant paint where appropriate. There are colours that look like aluminium.

Take lessons from the motorcycle fraternity, they have products for preventing corrosion on aluminium. A popular one is Scottoiler FS365 which is water based and needs regular reapplication, ACF50 is also popular, it was designed to protect military aircraft and is more durable but also more expensive. I'd try both and see which you prefer (my guess would be FS365 as it's less messy/sticky).

Gentlemen,

Many thanks for your constructive suggestions - there's nothing worse than polishing the engine components just before assembly and installation, and opening up the bonnet a week or so later to be faced with grey aluminium with white spots liberally splattered all over. Well, there is, but in this context there's ain't nothing worse.

I'll try the suggestions this weekend on the 500R if I can, and let you know the results.

Cheers,

Ian

I've just remembered another good product, Muc Off Motorcycle Protectant with PTFE, which you can get from Halfords.