As usual, the easiest way to check these things out is a quick Google
search, which yields lots of hits, including www.bonami.com . It will
probably excite many of you to know that not only do they make the same
cleansers with the same ingredients that they first manufactured in 1886,
the Faultless Starch/Bonami company owns numerous other brands including the
ever popular garden weasel. It is NOT Diatomaceous earth as I so foolishly
stated, but Feldspar that makes Bon Ami so special. Further search reveals
that Feldspar is a relatively soft silicate (a hardness of about 6),
frequently (but not exclusively) calcium sodium aluminum silicate.
There are many stories on the web about sifting Bon Ami into the carb of
running engines to deglaze the barrels of engines with chrome rings that
didn't seat. Sort of like lapping the rings with a higher cycle rate. It's
probably just fine to do that before you resort to a teardown of a smoky
street engine (and maybe even a racing motor). People in the forums fretted
about it getting into the oil. No way, unless the rings are missing.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-fot@autox.team.net] On Behalf
Of riverside
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 12:07 PM
To: fot
Subject: bon ami
Having built several engines w/ chrome rings and never had a seating
problem, I find this whole topic fascinating. I bounced the technique off
the head of an old engine guru of mine and he offered that the current
BonAmi is not like the stuff from a quarter century ago. Any comments on
the chemistry and characteristics of the current stuff and its usefulness in
this application. I gotta get this right, because now that I know the right
way, ignorance, superstition, and blind outhouse luck will no longer protect
me.
art de armond
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