Will it wash? Testing our new parts washer | Redline Update - Hagerty Media

The Redline Rebuild series has a way of transforming the gritty and slow process of engine rebuilds into slick and quick productions. Behind the scenes, though, there is something else that is slick (but hardly quick) that Davin and the crew has to deal with—dirty parts. Luckily, Davin just got a new delivery to the shop that will make the process a bit easier for him.

“All those parts that are pretty and clean during assembly don’t just magically get that way,” says Davin. “It’s easy to forget about the grimy mess on the tables when it disappears after a few seconds in the time lapse, but that is a stack of dirty parts that typically haunts me for quite awhile.”

Instead of laboriously hand-cleaning those parts, Davin now has a big ol’ Gladiator parts washer to do most of the work for him. The new shop is not lacking in floorspace, but a parts washer of this size is still a big investment in both space and capital. The time it saves allows for more productive things to be done, so if the Redline Garage were a for-profit shop, this big acquisition could end up saving money.

The Gladiator is massive, no way to ignore that, but that size means Davin can load it up with everything that will be reused from a given engine, set the timer, and walk away to get something else done. Now and again there will still be a need to do some labor-intensive cleaning on very gooped-up parts. That is to be expected though; no automated parts washer can get everything removed from a complex casting like a cylinder head or engine block.

We could watch this big beast run all day. It almost makes us want to buy more dirty things just to clean them up. For now, Davin is going to stick to getting the Chrysler 440 ready for the machine shop. Always nice when you can make progress while drinking a cup of coffee.