DIY Valve cleaning, quick, easy, and SAFELY

Cleaning carbon build up off of exhaust valves prior to lapping using a drill/drill press, red Scotch Brite pad, wd40, and a chunk of rubber hose.

[@stewartwells87]

At last, someone on youtube who does this without damaging valve stem in chuck, or valve face- good tips and now I can do my own valves without the risk of damage- excellent video

[@danielostman5805]

last time i did this i used a brass wirebrush to remove the worst crap and the i used scotch brite. the brass is so soft that it dont do any damage. worked great!

[@NKPGarage]

Great way to clean up the valves. I never thought of using the drill press but that makes it a whole lot easier than using a handheld drill. Thanks for taking the time to put this together and share it with us.

[@dariusz9044]

I actually just did this today before I ran in to this video. It works really well. you can also use tape to protect the guide on the ends just put 3-4 wraps and don't go crazy with overthinking in the drill.

[@toddavies1326]

Just use a wire wheel on bench grinder - doesn’t hurt them - been doing it for years

[@laytonturpin6957]

And here I have, all of this, and now I can save some time and money. So simple, but then again high tech. Thanks a million fella! I have liked and subscribed…

[@zachnuketown]

Thanks for the degloving tip!

[@jmcintire708]

He removes his wedding ring but that chuck key swinging on a chain does not concern him at all.

[@ewoktribesman7538]

I thought the same thing. Never like to see them dangling down on chains. Personally I glue a magnet to the drill press and always return the chuck key to the magnet.

[@andyroo3022]

I have some CRC throttle body and air intake cleaner. It melted away the carbon on my BMW throttle body. I blew cylinder 3 and 4 head on my vintage VW engine last week, so I will use that with a bit of scotch brite pad to do my valves before I very lightly lap them with grinding past and tool. The CRC is strong and works very well.

[@johneric3886]

Nice work, good communication skills.

[@almann101]

Great video. Thanks man

[@shwah5112]

hey, big thanks for the video! i want to learn to work on engines so im trying to bring back an old decrepit motorcycle and this worked wonders! my valves look beautiful now. I almost sanded them since that's the method of the first video that came up when i searched... that would have been sad lol

[@Kaden_2v]

Great info thanks

[@pclouw]

Finally someone using drill press like I do.. sure not the safest but it works.. can use 2 hands and it is stable.. 😎😎😎

[@t.raghavendrat.raghavendra3841]

Very nice

[@leeanthony9495]

use the same procedure for lapping the valve. put valve in the head, install rubber hose, put drill on valve stem and work it back and forth in the guide.

[@Sirtimsmokesalot]

Degloved my left hand when I rolled my truck over. Your right, it does not look good at all.

[@ptrd4111]

I cant to seem to find that valve holder on rockauto

[@Alexmechanic559]

I use a a rubber pcv hose to grab it with my drill and it does the job

[@richardwalling9695]

I have actually used a file to face off the valves when I didn't have a valve grinder.

[@gorkzop]

Could it be an idea to use an gray scotch brite as well after for a finer finish? I converted my engine to propane..so what I'll remove now won't come back

[@Canuckrz]

Its worth experimenting with, worst case scenario you're out a few bucks on a scotchbrite pad. I'd just be careful to not get something too coarse that could screw up your sealing surface.

[@mark4lev]

I use the grey Mirka

[@mastermachine869]

My DIY way in cleaning valves is by soaking it into a water with Tide Detergent Powder mixed with small amount of diesel..Anyway Great video dude.

[@Canuckrz]

Thanks. Tide and gasoline is interesting, I haven't heard of that mix before. Did you find out about it from somewhere else or did you come up with it yourself?

[@mastermachine869]

@@Canuckrz i just thought it and tried. I’ve been doing it for many years and always turns perfectly..

[@sagitario12ish]

Nice video, but you have a video showing the seat cleaning? Thanks.

[@Canuckrz]

Unfortunately not, my seats were clean enough that I could move directly onto lapping after a wipe with carb cleaner.

[@josephashe]

I'm wanting to clean up some valves on an old 350 head, and also where they seat. Would I need to lap the valves after cleaning? I was wanting to do a soak in heavier duty simple green for the head to try and clean out the ports. If they don't look too bad I might just live and let be I guess. @@Canuckrz

[@Canuckrz]

@josephashe If you make sure to organize the valves so they go back in the same spot they came from then lapping is not strictly necessary. Poking them into a cardboard box works well for this. That being said if you have the heads torn all the way down lapping doesn't take long to do and provides peace of mind.

[@bobobrazil1973]

Just little tip you don't have to keep valves in order when doing valve job their all the same size dimensions etc. Just like with push rods rockers etc.

[@twr41cox]

They are different part numbers on some dirt bikes…

[@MaxBoltz246]

Muriatic acid cleans carbon off of valves in minutes completely without touching them

[@mitchelsavage4198]

And eats metal smh

[@mastermachine869]

Avoid it from getting rust. I think Muriatic Acid would cause rust.

[@jakefriesenjake]

@@mitchelsavage4198 it eats metal, but not stainless!

[@gregorykusiak5424]

Why not soak the valves in WD/Seafoam/ PBBlaster (up to the carbon line) BEFORE putting them in the drill? The Sweet Project Cars guy has a neato combo of a penetrating oil like WD, transmission fluid and Dawn dish soap that would probably work great as a pre-soak too: soften the caked-on carbon before scrubbing, then a quick rinse with carb cleaner.

[@Canuckrz]

I should have pointed out that I did give these a quite a bit of carb cleaner beforehand, however it was a spray and not so much letting them soak. Soaking likely would make removing the remaining carbon easier, the one slight potential headache with soaking is mixing up the valves. They should all theoretically be identical but with a high mileage engine like this one (350k miles) I wanted to be certain each valve went back to where it was removed from in case of irregular wear, which is why you see them stuck into the cardboard box like that. You could likely soak them one at a time to get around this, or use some sort of label on the stem.

[@gregorykusiak5424]

@@Canuckrz stem labelling FTW! Individual soaking would take too long - you’d only (might) need a couple pints of solution in a bath receptacle 2-3” deep to submerge what needs it in this case - aluminum cake pan or muffin tin perhaps? Next time...

[@LukeJosiah]

you should try using some acetone and transmission fluid to dissolve the carbon

[@deltacharlieecho4732]

Did a 24 hour soak of my valves in acetone and it did nothing to the carbon build up. It took green scotch bright to get the carbon to come off. Not sure how anyone is doing this with fine pads.

[@markfranke8326]

Never found this to work on hardened carbon and scale. Also, scotch brite sands away both the carbon and the valve metal. Better to use a wire wheel. The wire wheel bristles are softer metal than the valve so it will not abrade the valve metal.

[@projectundrfire]

Looks like you needed the green pads..

[@wyattholtegel96]

I personally have always used green pads for cleaning the valves up. It helps get the carbon deposits off quicker with less work and it would take an awful lot of time to actually remove any significant material with it

[@projectundrfire]

@wyattholtegel96 totally agree. And not knocking the video, he's just being safe lol.

[@blatt5478]

hello, what grain size is the patch

[@Canuckrz]

Not certain what you mean by grain size of the patch? If you're talking about the scotch Brite pad they're based on color. It was red I used iirc.

[@richardgalli7262]

use oven cleaner instead

[@datawizard8194]

I figure I’m out of luck but what if the valve stem that runs in the valve guide is rusty? Is there anything I can do for that or is it to just replace them

[@Canuckrz]

You could try evaporust, but if there is any pitting at all I'd replace, or it will just chew your valve seals to pieces.

[@Crywolffsw]

Abit of oven cleaner on each valve an let it sit for abit, wipes straight off ;)

[@mnewln1800]

PSA Some exhaust valves are filled with liquid sodium which will explode upon contact with oxygen.

[@shriramvenu]

only certain performance valves have these and sodium melts at 98C. it will be solid when you're handling it. as long as you don't drill into the valve stem you don't ever have to worry about the sodium contacting oxygen

[@RW-kd4gx]

Spend 15buck and have the machine shop media blast much cleaner

[@frankdavidson9675]

you are going about the wrong way the only part that needs cleaning is bottom side so you have clean bothat the same time to for a sealits called lapping with a compound use asmall wood hand drill is all that is needed you take a compression test before dissasimling the valves polish the re take compression test put aspoon of oil in plug hole see if it helps compressionif oil helps the ring need replacing valves are ok

[@Colin-Fenix]

Why did this 3-minute video take almost 10 minutes?

[@azkal2ko]

this is easy?

[@gestech_1774]

Ku hampelas lemes mang meh tereh

[@hakankalakar3719]

Ya dünyada neler var neler

[@toby7291]

Taking the valves out the engine and cleaning them is not quick and easy. 😂

[@andyroo3022]

Agree, but It is if you have no choice to pull your engine out and apart. I melted a hole in one of my Aluminum VW beetle cylinder heads, so I will be doing mine.

[@jake3860]

Just drop it in an ultrasonic cleaner, let it vlean it for you then your done in 15 minutes!

[@stoneyswolf]

The easiest way is to pour glass bead down the carburetor at 6k rpm. Cleans everything like new.

[@zulgenius609]

use cordless drill, why you make it hard to do simple job.

[@shriramvenu]

because if you have a drill press it is even easier

[@aqib2000]

Do NOT DO THIS!