Hello, John Talley here with partzilla.com. Yeah, engine cases show their age with time, let's face
it. Road grime, dirt, grease-- especially Georgia clay-- and all kinds of stuff can get on it and really
take away from the look of your engine. Today I'm going to show you how you can bring them back, and
maybe just maybe get them looking even better than when they were new. So if you're ready, let's go.
Engine cases, crank case covers, cylinders-- pretty much anything
that's made of cast aluminum tends to get messed up on a motorcycle engine.
Especially when those parts are subjected to more punishment like on a dirt bike or an ATV.
Dirt and rocks, when they scratch up the aluminum, and oil and grease and Georgia clay, like I said,
they'll stain it. And the elements just do a number on aluminum in general. So to do this, you're going
to need a couple of specialty tools that you might not have in your toolbox. First you're going to
need a rotary tool like a dremel. Now a corded version will give you a little bit more power,
but a cordless one will work fine as well. For me, I prefer to use a die grinder, and that's
what I'll be using today. They start at around 30 bucks and go up in price to a couple hundred.
Now you'll also need a bench top grinder with a buffing wheel on it. Now they can range in
price anywhere from 50 bucks to several hundred, depending on just how large of a unit you want
to go with. Now an eight inch buffer is optimal, but you can get away with something a little bit
smaller if you're willing to endure a little more inconvenience. Now an investment and all that stuff is
going to, well, it's going to depend on how often you're going to be able to do a job like this.
Okay guys, we've got an engine crank case cover, and now we need to clean it. Now if you've got access
to a parts washer, that would be great. But if you don't, you can get away with just using a good brake
cleaner. Now just make sure that you either use a brass- or a nylon-type brush to get it cleaned up.
We've already got the bearings, screws and any brackets removed, and that'll let us take a
close look now for any type of damage. Because every now and then, a little metal shard can
get in there and then rattle loose on the inside to the crank case and cause damage,
and now is a perfect time to take a really close look to make sure that's not the case.
If I see any rough edges, I can use a die grinder and just file it down a bit to make sure
that those edges won't break off in the crankcase when I put it all back together.
Now what I want to do here is use something with some grit to get a nice clean uniform
surface. Now as you can see on this stator cover, it has a little bit of damage probably caused
by the shifter being a little too close to it, so what we're going to do is use a scotch brite pad
on the end of our die grinder to blend this in. Now we don't want to go digging
into it. We just want to blend the edges around as carefully as possible to try to mask the damage.
Now you may run into an occurrence where you've got an engine case or a cover that's aluminum
but it's also been painted, and that happens more often than not. Now you can strip off the paint,
but just be aware that when you strip it off it's going to reveal any imperfections in the surface
that the paint may be hiding. So be prepared to do a little bit more work if that's the case.
One other note I want to make is not every cover that you see is made out of aluminum
even though it may feel like it. In this case it's printed right on the side: it's magnesium.
Now you can polish magnesium, but I want to warn you the dust that comes off-- if you have
to do any work with a scotch brite pad or a sander-- that stuff is extremely flammable.
So you really have to be careful with that. The other thing that you're going to need
is a good respirator. And I'm not talking about just a mask. You actually need to get
a quality respirator, because the dust that can come off either the aluminum
or the magnesium? You do not want to inhale it. Because let's face it, once it gets in your lungs,
your body's not going to be able to break it down. It is not it is not biodegradable, so it's going to
stay in there. So really need to invest in a good respirator before you get started on this project.
Well now that we've got that done, we can start actually polishing the different pieces to
get a nice shine. You could use something like an abrasive nylon to smooth it down
and help get more of a pop on the surfaces, and they make conical brushes so you can get into
those really tight spots. Now once we've done with the crankcase halves, we'll go through the same
process on the clutch cover, flywheel cover, water pump, and so on. And once I'm done, I'll protect
the shine by keeping it clean. When you keep it clean, you can keep it looking good and prevent
rust. And if you want to know more about preventing rust, check out our video on that topic as well.
Well look, if you need anything for your motorcycle, come see us at partzilla.com
and we can get you taken care of. If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the
section below and I'll do my best to answer them. We just want to say thank you for shopping here
with us at partzilla, and we will see you in the next video. Y'all have a great day.