The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Opinions, on Cam and lifter 235 please....

O.K. I've decided that I should probably replace the cam, lifters and push rods. The engine is '61 235 in an Apache 10. Dropped the head off for cleaning,and whatever else it may need earlier this afternoon, lots of Carbon buildup, same on the piston tops. The bottom end hasnt been using any oil, and seems pretty tight. I am going for fuel economy here and would appreciate opinions on the best cam, and type of lifters (Solid or Hydraulic) to put in there. Also any tips or tricks to cleaning up the carbon on the piston tops? Thanks, Tony

If fuel economy is your goal, then a stock replacement cam would probably be best. Personally, I prefer hydraulic lifters. Much less maintenance. And the way I've cleaned the tops of pistons is with carb cleaner, a putty knife and lotsa elbow grease. Now if you're leaving the pistons in the holes while cleaning...well, I'd sure wanna run a shop vac around the edges just to make sure that no junk got down between the piston, cylinder wall and top ring.

hth,

I think you may be in for a surprise after you get the head done. Often a new valve job on an old engine will increase compression and the rings will start to fail. Good luck, though.

The best way to clean pistons and combustion chambers is to drip water down the carb throat with a mister (so you don't overdo it) while the engine is warm and running at fast idle (1200 rpm or so), just enough to make it drop the RPM a few hundred. This steam cleans the whole thing and is almost as good as nitrous for cleaning the carbon out.

:o
If you going to shoot water through the carb to clean off the top of the pistons, make sure your not backed into the garage or you don't have something valuable behind the truck because it will, I repeat, IT WILL blow black carbon all over the place!

And if your rings are tired, you will have water in the oil............

And if you use TOO much water, you may end up with rings and pistons in the oil
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Like 4onthefloor says, use a mister bottle so you do not over do it.

There has always seemed to be something fundamentally wrong with water into the carb. I'll probably just gently clean the tops of the pistons and use the shop vac to get the heavier grit out of the edges. Since I have also pulled the pan, perhaps a healthy dose of WD40 will rinse the finer stuff out the bottom, past the rings?

You can use a needle tip attachment on the vacuum hose or wand.
It isn`t really a needle, just a pointed tip attachment that can help cleaning in tight areas like the pistonto cylinder wall area.
Try to not use a scraper on the carbon, it doesn`t do nice things to the top of a piston if you gouge it while trying to remove the carbon. use some ATF (auto tranny fluid) to soften it up. Let it soak,