RTV Removal from impossible to reach spots

[Russell Senior]

Anyone have experience removing rtv with acid or any other cleaning solutions? I'm rebuilding my engine, and someone used waaaaay too much RTV and got a lot of inside the engine. I can clean what I can see, but I'm worried about what I can't see.

[Frank Angerano]

Hey Russell, welcome to Quadcrazy. RTV ? Are you referring to a silicone the vulcanizing type ?  I would stay away from any acid use to be honest. There are a few easy ways to do it. One I’ve used is a really good chisel and scraped it off. You have better control over a chisel then you would a razor.  Other methods I’ve looked up are using a dreamel or a pencil grinder with a soft wire brush tip and work it slowly around the edges.  Here is the video I followed and it helped. I used all three methods, razor (ok) chisel (good bit need to be careful) and a pencil grinder/dremel with the wire wheel. 

Hope this helps  

 

[Russell Senior]

Thanks. It's not the gasket surfaces I need to clean, it's the areas I can't get to.  Someone put int WAAAY too much RTV so it all squeezed out inside the engine.  I bought the engine with a rod knock, and I'm thinking RTV got in somewhere and prevented proper oiling. 

[Frank Angerano]

It’s definitely possible that it got up onto the oil pump or the pick up.  If your splitting the engine I would assume you would see it all anyway ?  Double check and blow out all of your lines and crevices good including the banjo bolts since they have small holes in them.    

That stuff is almost impossible to breakdown so I think acid would be bad.   Your going to have to double check and make sure its all out the good ole fashion way!

Is it the red or silver ? Reason I’m asking is you stand a slightly better chance seeing the red! 

 

[Russell Senior]

It's a light color, almost white, so I'm thinking Kawasaki Bond, maybe.  Honda bond is light grey-ish, anyway, never used kawasaki bond.  

[Frank Angerano]

First time for everything!!! 

Be sure to post some progress photos as well as share any tricks you may learn along the way. 

Good luck.