Engine polishing-xj750j

i recently purchased a 1982 maxim xj750. the bike runs amazing with maybe 10000miles on a rebuild with a 0.30 over bore. the problem is that the engine is ugly as sin. i need to find out the best way to strip off the old grease and tarnish from the aluminum and polish it to a pristine shine.

Any idea's ?

 

I would love to have an easy way to do it as well. This last weekend, I cleaned it up the best I coule with a gallon of simple green, a bunch of small wire brushes, and some brillo pads. It took a long time, but looks a lot better now. Granted, it doesn't look anywhere near new, but better than it was.

I was going to try some PB Blaster, but never did find any to buy.. but I think it would work well.

 

Go to wallymart and buy a bunch of their cheap cans of brake parts cleaner.
Cold engine spray down, will clean off all road , oily, and dirt grime.
That will clean the engine, but to polish, you'll have to take off the outer covers and do some wet sanding up to about 1000grit, then get some aluminum polish and rub them out.

I got a 6" buffing wheel for my grinder and it shortened the polishing time by a ton if you have one, but final rub down do by hand with old tee shirts.

As for the block itself there is no real easy way to polish anything there, but a good clean up and putting on polished covers around the engine like you can see in my gallery of my XJ1100 will make the engine pretty.

Lastly I'd like to mask off my cylinder bank and repaint them black with high temp black, and repaint my cam covers as well, then just re-sand the paint off the edges of the cooling fins, but I have never gotten around to doing that.

Also note, if you live in a winter or pretty moist place, after you get your side covers all polished, you might want to spray them with a clear coat, as aluminum can tarnish over time without a coating, or you have to stay on top of polishing them a couple times a year.

The factory puts clear coat on them, so if you need to remove it before you start the sanding and polishing work, strip them with paint stripper.