Help! Any cheap way to clean an aluminum head?

Carburettor cleaner comes to mind, if you can find a big enough tank of the stuff.

If not, a varsol tank and an air gun, or maybe a steam cleaner. I just bought a household steam cleaner called a Steam Shark that I plan to try next time I have an engine that needs cleaning.

I've seen at dealerships many have water-based solvent tanks that they heat up and seem to work pretty well. It's literally a "dish-washer" that is used for general parts clean-up.. I saw a Nissan 4-cyl head I thought came out pretty well, believe it was aluminum. Might call around and see if anyone local has one.

The disposal of "hot tank" mateial is becoming problematic here in California. (It's considered toxic waste so they charge an arm and a leg to dispose of it.)

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Know anybody near where you live with a bead blaster?

|I'm doing some work on an old Toyota 20R head (I'm restoring a '77 |Celica). | |I know you can't hot-tank an aluminum head, so does anyone know of a |good solvent for cleaning it all up, getting the carbon out of the |combustion chambers and ports, cleaning the valves without damaging |them, etc . . .

Purple cleaner - Castrol Super Clean - by the gallon is only about $6 - $7 and does a great job. Don't leave it on though as it will react with aluminum. Brush it on, scrub the nasty spots with more, then use a compressed air water siphon blowgun to knock off the solvent and dissolved grease.

Simple green works almost as well and probably does not react with aluminum.