Cleaning up a piston

[Canadiana]

I've cleaned the carbon build up on a piston. The piston and ring look pretty good but i want to remove that small amount of build up in the ring groove. My piston is aluminum  (i think), can i use a brass bristled toothbrush (wire brush) or will i wear on the piston? The piston is used but certainly reusable so i don't want to add anymore wear to it. Thanks and happy rebuilds to ya!

[Al_Smith]

It won't hurt it with a wire brush .

[teakwood]

brass is ok. steel is not

[joe_indi]

A toothbrush and toothpaste (yes toothpaste) will clean up the piston better and with no wear.

[Canadiana]

Does that freshen up the exhaust too smiley_airfreshener :D

[Al_Smith]

It depends on the wire brush .Some steel is rather soft,you won't damage the piston or at least I never have .On the other hand some are so stiff you can peel chrome with them .Now I'm talking about a wire brush power driven like on a bench grinder type of thing .

[joe_indi]

Does that freshen up the exhaust too smiley_airfreshener :D

Yes! It will work extremely well with a gritty toothpaste :laugh:
Use water as solvent. After the cleaning/freshening ;P rinse off with water, dry it and wipe all over with fuel.

[Iwawoodwork]

I worked in a parts house/machine shop (about 61-62)when in high school and one of the machinists showed me to just use a piece of the old rings , break about in 1/3s and pull that around the ring grove a few times. I did that on my old 2stroke (early 60s) motorcycle pistons many times. we didn't have the specialty 2 stroke oil at that time so we poured the oil to the mix, really carboned engines up.

[Al_Smith]

Generally speaking on a two cycle engine the only carbon build up will be on the piston face,the top of the piston .If you are squeamish about a wire brush 3m Scotch bright with some kerosene plus some "elbow grease " will clean it right up .

If it has some scorch on the exhaust side this stuff will buff that right out .A piston doesn't have to shine like a new penny or be perfect to work well .