Oil baked on ceramic coated headers

[DirkDiggler]

By the time I stopped it was too late.
The valve cover gasket let go a ton of oil onto my pristine header. I was a long way from home. It is now baked on. Any cleanup suggestions would be much appreciated.

Im using brake cleaner on the underside of the car.

[ccm399]

Try soaking the header in anti-freeze. We used to do this with our R/C cars pipes after a long main event. All the pitstops caused fuel (with oil of course) to get onto the pipe and burn onto it. The anti-freeze loosened it up nicely and normally you could get the pipe looking good as new. Never tried it on "normal" oil though. If you can't get the area of the header into a container to soak just soak a rag in antifreeze then use cling wrap to seal it up and let is soak.

Good luck.

Chris

[rivs68]

I've used bug and tar remover, it worked suprisingly well

[cmraman]

I've dealt with this on my Olds, it will only get so clean. Probably should just get them recoated, unfortunately.

[Jim Nilsen]

oven cleaner can do remarkably well in removing oil grime from anything.

[dontlifttoshift]

I have used easy off oven cleaner and been successful. Be careful, it will eat anodizing, too. After that wheel polish and a soft rag should bring back the luster.

[Bryce]

I just polished my header when I had it out. I used mothers mag polish and it worked really good.