If you are only trying to give the engine, wheels and other alloy bits a bit of a scrub up start by going through the usual degrease, CT18 (truckwash) prep, then try good old Ajax and elbow grease. Tool up with a bunch of different brushes including small ones and bottle / gun brushes for fins etc. The acid based mag wheel cleaners (normally phosphoric acid also used in rust conversion) and other aluminium cleaners do a great job but can have post wash streaking and over time the acids they are based on will strip zinc plating which no-one ever considers. Even Ajax has very weak alkali content (sodium bicarbonate - MUCH safer that caustic soda / sodium hydroxide that will leach the fats out of your skin) but relies on fine abrasives (quartz). Whatever you use above must be really thoroughly washed off and blown dry to help stop white 'blooming'.
Check this MSDS for Alibrite.
http://www.septone.com.au/pdf/msds/Septone%20Alibrite%20SDS.pdfI was considering using it as a prep product for blasting badly corroded jobs until I read what is in it. Hydroflouric Acid is seriously dangerous stuff !
For a full resto and if you want oxide GONE the only way to remove all of it is vapour / hydra / vaqua / wet blasting. If you are unfamiliar with vapour blasting it is done in a sealed cabinet using a slurry of fine glass beads supended in a stream of water which cushions and lubricates the beads and washes away removed debris. I've had guys bring me parts where they have tried all the usual 'cleaners' and have been blown away at the end result which can include different finishes for different applications. These have included jobs previously soda blasted with grey patches still showing and have had corosion return as bad if not worse than before (remember too that soda blasting deposits straight sodium bicarbonate - an alloy attacking alkali).
To do a proper job the engine, wheels etc should be broken down but I have reluctantly blasted whole engines however prefer not to as they are harder to do in the long run particularly if they are large, as opposed to individual components, and there is always a risk that blasting medium can find a way in no matter how much prep has gone into plugging things up. If getting someone to blast your parts ask what knowledge they have, and what precautions they take regarding protecting threads, oil galleries and other sensitive surfaces form their blasting ( I don't see the point in blasting bearing journals and bores just because you can). Also insist on seeing some of their work and do some homework as some shops are actually using fine angular grit or combined grit and bead, not straight glass bead in their cabinets!
Whatever you choose to get the engine looking better, if the surfaces aren't protected in the long term the corrosion will slowly return and I get annoyed when I see blasters advertising that the process protects parts from oxidising. Vapour blasting will greatly reduce return of corrosion by micro peening the surface of castings closing the granular structure so the claims are partially true but don't believe blasting will stop what is a natural chemical process. It doesn't matter whether the bike has been scrubbed clean or vapour blasted, aluminum and oxygen have a strong affinity for one another so if precautions aren't taken a gradual degradation will occur (take heart though - for most of us it has taken the bikes thirty plus years to look crappy and restored bikes get pretty well looked after). If you can't keep the bike bone dry a light spray of CRC 5-56 between rides will create a barrier and keep your ride looking good. Further if you have severe and deep corrosion there is a product called ACF50 which is used by the aviation industry that will penetrate deep into the alloy and stabilise it.
Sorry for all the waffle and if you need more info, Dave 0416074750
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