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Rust removal by using molasses

Here is another set i'm working on. These were a little bit rougher than the last set and so far i've been unable to get the bleeder screws out.

brake calipers.jpg
 
The rest of my wheel cleaned up as expected. Still heavy pitting at the 9:00 section of the rim but most of the rust is out of it. I knew it wasn't going to look new, this was just playing around with a wheel that won't be used for anything.

kw.jpg
 
I came across my original 383 intake manifold, so I dropped it in a week ago. I just took a look, and you can tell where it's sitting under the surface from the foam outline.

manifold foam.jpg
 
Does anyone know if there is a life limit of the molasses mix?. I have a cooler full that I have been using most of this summer but it seems to be losing it's power.
 
I just dumped 2 liters because it seemed to loose its power....I did use it most of the summer I was wondering if I was just getting impatient .
 
I got about 14 months out of the first batch, still into the second with a few months to go...
 
Very cool discovery with the use of molasses. but I'm to impatient to wait a week for rust removal. I bought a sand blasting pot from Harbor Freight for $125.00. I sandblasted a wheel house in about 1 hour and primed it to keep it from rusting until I can paint several parts with the same color to paint. media material is $45.00 for 5 gallon bucked and I vacuum it up after to reuse. I filter it through a screen then reload the pot. it save money buying more media.
 
DWilbur said:
Very cool discovery with the use of molasses. but I'm to impatient to wait a week for rust removal. I bought a sand blasting pot from Harbor Freight for $125.00. I sandblasted a wheel house in about 1 hour and primed it to keep it from rusting until I can paint several parts with the same color to paint. media material is $45.00 for 5 gallon bucked and I vacuum it up after to reuse. I filter it through a screen then reload the pot. it save money buying more media.
Click to expand...

I have a nice blaster also, that I only use for stuff that won't fit in my $25 molas-vat. I'm a little impatient myself but I'm more lazy, I've never had to wait for my parts to de-rust in the vat tho. I just put the parts in 2 weeks before I need them,lol... That saves "all" the work, time, trouble and expense of blasting. You can blast all you want but I'll let the molas-vat do it for me while I do something else easier.
 
Killer thread Photon......something i was not at all aware of,,,,,thorough. In the end. the organic strip it seems would have to superior and disposal of solution would be benign beyond the stripped metallic particulate....also....interesting, a non volatile organic compound v/s acid......i've used naval jelly in kind of a soak and scrub combo.....that's kind of a converter though...wire brush remove loose scale....paint a thisk film of the jelly on, give 10 minutes and then scuff with red pad vigorously...repeat.....but for a soak solution, i'd be more comfortable w old fragile parts sitting in molasses rather than acid....and waste disposal is suitable for a tree hugger.....less money...win..win...win
 
I tried this on my old headers and I could not believe how well it worked. Smell was bad but it worked. I left my headers in for 2 weeks and they came out very clean.
 
Needed to clean this hood up. It was nasty. Set it up and filled it with a mix and pressure washed it off a little bit ago.

image.jpg
 
I've heard when diluting Molasses or Vinegar with water, to use distilled water because it doesn't have minerals or anything in it .
 
I've just used tap water. I just emptied mine out (too heavy to move it to a different spot) and am ready to refill it again.
 
As an update, I have a different tank now. When I first started with limited research, I had thought that the molasses attacked rust only and left the bare steel or iron untouched. But after prolonged exposure it seems that some steel is removed as well; some surfaces of smooth steel gained a bit of a rough finish, and the steel tank I was using eventually developed a pinhole leak. I originally thought that tank would never get rusty and leak - it did stay rust free at least, but after several years of constant exposure it was definitely looking rough inside.

I use a large plastic tank now, originally meant to dispense oil. I sawed the top and hinged it to access the inside. Something like this, I got it free from a garage that was closing down.

fluidall_t70-1.jpg

Still constantly using it, everything from the earlier mentioned car parts to rusty garden tools.
 
I was wondering about the Molasses bath in an engine cooling system to clean out the rusty gunk. Anyone ever tried something like a 7-1 ratio in a radiator and maybe run it for a few hours and then flush it out? Seems like it would work ok but I don't want to be the first to try it.
 
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