Vinegar and salt

[SIMI BOB]

1 Gallon Vinegar, one cup of salt. I filled a large plastic bucket with 5 gallons Vinegar and 5 cups salt for these large parts. Works pretty damn well. About 12 hours for these parts. Then into 1 gallon water and one cup baking soda for a couple minutes to neutralize the Acid. Then a little wire brushing or a coarse Scotch Brite pad.
I have the same pail for over a year and it still gave the results seen below.




A little coarse (1) steel wool on these.

[NZVW]

I like this post, it appeals to my acidic sense of 'lockdown' humour and is an enviro friendly alternative,

[H-viken]

Nice!

I’ve used electrolysis but not this method

[Carl S.]

Have you tied muriatic acic? Not the low oder stuff. Get at Lowes.
Works like a charm!

[Chris Pomares]

Very cool. I like it Bob.
Carl, are you saying look for high oder stuff?

[Carl S.]

Yes, it has to be the orange label stuff. The low oder stuff is basically the orange cut with enough water to reduce the smell.
Water also reduced the efectiveness.

The orange label stuff is getting harder to find. Hope Depot no longer carries it but some Lowes still does.

[bfunke]

Here in the south some use molasses

[flat6guy]

Curious what the ph would be on this. Coke a cola is extremely acidic and chews up rust too.

[Irish911]

I'll have to try the vinegar and water.

I have used molasses before to clean an engine block (not a Porsche engine). Did a great job. Seem to recall a 10:1 water:molasses mix. Molasses from a feed store is very cheap. I got the idea from a neighbour around the corner from me. He removed the rust from an entire 1958 Chevy pickup. Took the truck apart and made a huge molasses bath. Then over the winter cleaned each panel. I've seen the truck panels and they are very clean. I couldn't find a spot of rust. It just takes time for the molasses to do the work. Not to be used if you are in a hurry.