Acid Dipping Engines

[jlagnese at massed.net (John S. Lagnese)]

Isn't phosphoric acid naval jelly? I seem to recall the name as familiar.
John
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Spewey" <spewey@comcast.net>
To: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 2:36 PM
Subject: Re: Acid Dipping Engines


> Brian Haygood wrote:
> > What kind of acid is used to clean engines and such?  Put more
> > generally, what kinds of acids will eat everything on the planet
> > except steel and aluminum?
> 
> I successfully cleaned my 2-cylinder river-water-cooled sailboat 
> engine's crusty water passages with phosphoric acid that I borrowed from 
> the chem lab I was working in.  Muriatic (30% HCl) is more likely to be 
> available to the common man as it is used to clean pools and concrete.
> 
> Also:
> 
> "Technical quality HCl at typically 18% concentration is the most 
> commonly used pickling agent for the pickling of carbon steel grades."
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrochloric_acid
> 
> And:
> 
> "Final treatment of iron and steel products before onward sale into 
> manufacturing includes pickling in strong mineral acid to remove rust 
> and prepare the surface for tin or chromium plating or for other surface 
> treatments such as galvanization or painting. The two acids commonly 
> used are hydrochloric acid and sulphuric acid."
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickling#Other_uses_of_the_word_.22pickle.22
> 
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