Cleaning Engines

I have a Webra Speed 61, bought many, many years ago, and used by a friend for a few weeks, when I got it back, it went into its box and there it remained. Now seized solid, with burnt on fuel etc., - any ideas on how to clean it? Is there a product on the market - I did read somewhere about putting engines in the dishwasher! Many thanks in advance.

There are many opinions on cleaning engines ive used paraffin ,truck wash all sorts.to unseize an engine again there are variuos theories.Ive succeeded by heating it up with a hot gun.Some people put them in an oven.Some say the best way is to unseize it and fly it.The getting hot and soaked in fuel is considered a good way to get an engine cleaned up.

Ummm - a word of warning about some detergents and water - they DO attack castings and aluminium bits like pistons and conrods. My prefered method is to disassemble the motor as much as possible and gently heat in an oven - I only heat to 150 F - for about an hour - this will soften most of the gunk - then - after the motor has cooled down to a temperature you can comfortably hold - but not totally cooled off - plunge the motor into glow fuel and leave it soak for a whole day. You will find the thing will then come apart with little difficulty - Clean all parts thoroughly and then re- assemble with after run oil. I've been using and collecting IC motors for more than 50 years and this method has always worked well for me. Even on some strange old motors with questionable metallurgy in the castings. Oh - and as Eric has said - PATIENCE is a major part of the tool box when working on engines.

So no sledge hammer then

Eric wrote: You can use a sledge hammer on an MDS, it won't notice! (and it still won't run afterwards!)

They don't run when new do they?
Just soak the bugger in fuel & free it off ..... it'll be fine after that.

Ive a couple of vintage engines that I may try the oven test on.

Should the fuel be 5% or !0% isuppose its 1 for 2 strokes and toyther for 4 strokes

The Beard wrote: Should the fuel be 5% or !0% isuppose its 1 for 2 strokes and toyther for 4 strokes

I gather you are referring to the nitro content Stephen, I use mostly 5% unless I'm looking to use a Cox or some high performance motor. - In a lot of my 4 strokes I use no nitro content at all and you don't need nitro content to soak the motor in!! If you are asking about oil content those figures are way off - unless of course you want to blow the bloody thing up!

You two need to chill I was joking,my engines are lovely and clean mostly and covered in fuel so they don go rusty.

Many thanks for all the replies - looks as though I have to slip it in with the Sunday roast!
We have a fan operated oven - will this make any difference? lol.