I have a set of heads off a 440. The previous owner had them cleaned and then wrapped them in plastic. He obviously didn't store then properly as they are all rusty and parts of the bag is stuck to the metal. What is the best way to clean these up and store them for a future build? Can I sandblast the head? It is fully stripped down.

Back to the machine shop for a hot tank ?? You can sandblast,glassbead etc...But the valve guides should be plugged from both ends if they're getting reused...Evaporust is another option submerge them and watch the rust dissappear...

I agree...Evaporust is amazing. I would soak them in that instead of blasting. You can buy a 5 gallon bucket from O'Reilly.

See the link below: http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail...Rust&mc=EVA

Only in Florida.. Had the same problem with the crates of windshields we stored at our warehouse in Lakeland..

Each WS was individually wrapped with plastic and due to the heat and humidity, the plastic would stick to the WS and actually leave marks like water marks.. Could not sand out or buff out. Tossed em.... Even changed the plastic wrap to a perforated type ( hundreds of little holes in it) and it didn't work...

Forgive me for going OT, but same problem by my read..

Minivan- I don't know that I would call it the "same" problem but I agree the humidity/heat can play against us down here. It sounds like you guys actually attempted to store them properly! Lol-my guy just wrapped them in plastic bags and then I swear he buried them out back for 10 years before touching them again. They looked as if they had bugs eating all the plastic and water just sitting all over them! I'm not sure I can say he even made a valiant effort to store them properly!

I'm not ready to use them and have no idea if I ever will but I figure I would clean them up now and attempt to store them properly so if I can't use them maybe someone can. I just hate to see original parts rot away.

They will probably need a valve job and new guides in any case. I think you need to take them to a machine shop that has a wheelabrator machine to blast them and wash them, glass bead the valves if they're not pitted and do a valve job, etc. It may not be worth the trouble to redo them unless they are rare heads? 906 heads are cheap

Just thinking outside the box here.... I agree with RoadRunnerJD that the heads will almost for sure need the valve guides replaced and a fresh valve job. You already know that long-term storage doesn't always work out. If you clean/repair them now, you might be doing it all over in a few years when you decide to use the heads. Why don't you just hose them with WD-40 real good, wrap them in plastic again (as air tight as possible) and store them inside somewhere? You not going to use them right away, right? Why risk doing a valve job twice?