I've heard that you soak them in wd-40 for a while then just wipe them down. What works best?

 

Yeah, use WD-40 and go to an autoparts store and get one of those 3M grey "scrubber" pads (very similar to the ones people use to clean dishes, but less abrasive). Lightly scrub the rust off after spraying the cams with WD.

I had a set of ZC cams that had a light layer of rust from sittting around. It worked like a charm.

 

Brake cleaner works as well

 

How bad/deep is the rust? When the engine in my 83 Prelude took a ****, I got a junkyard motor to rebuild, but water has gotten under the valve cover and I had a couple bad rust spots on the cam...so bad that machine shops said it was trash, so I sent it to Web Cam for a regrind, came out cherry.

 

Try some naval jelly.

 

extra fine scotchbrite is the way to go its a burgundy color you can get it from your engine builder supply shop