The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk parts cleaner

Plan to spend some time cleaning up parts like my rocker arms etc. What is a good solvent to use?

Simple Green (& a little elbow greese) works well and is Environmentally friendly.
Harold

My elbows are running low on grease these days. I use paint thinner from Home Depot or Lowes in my parts washer. It comes in 5 gallon cans. It works as good as what we use to get from the parts cleaning service guy 20 years ago.
Kerosene or diesel fuel works, but it stinks too much for my bloodhound wife.
What ever you do, don't use gas. In spite of it being the best engine grease/crud solvent on the planet, some claim that it is dangerous to use as a parts cleaner.
Carl

Mineral spirits does well, and is not as explosive as gasoline, expensive, though.

Ed

kerosene, comes in 1 or 5 gal cans at HD. If you don't have a parts washer, get you one of those big pans that goes under a hot water heater or one of those big plastic pans that masons use to mix brick mortar. A head, an intake or even a block will fit in one. When you're done, let the solids settle a few days siphon off the cleaner top section for reuse and dispose of the rest in your used oil container. Get a selection of stiff brushes and some plastic putty knifes for scraping the solid stuff off. Store them in one of those clear plastic shoe box containers you can also get at HD. Put some newspaper in the bottom to soak up residual kerosene. I admire Harold's environmental concern, but when I tried simple green, I had the biggest darn mess you can imagine. I must have been doing something wrong.

My understanding is mineral spirits is the base for some of the fancy parts washer solvents such as safety clean.
I’ve had good luck with straight mineral spirits.

Also use diesel fuel on occasion, works pretty well but does leave things a little oily. Rinse with brakeclean.

Gas. It works better than anything else for grease. It's safe if away from a flame and the left over does not have to be stored for 3 years and then thrown away in an approved environmentally safe disposal site. You just put the left over gas in your truck, lawnmower, etc.
If you spray the gas on as you brush (paint brush, bristle brush, screw driver, tooth brush or power squirt), there will be very little used. Wait till gas evaporates and dump the gunk out of the catchment pan.

Wash your hands, with this.

I have tried all the orange colored products and all other products. The Dove foam has no waste, one handed pump with dirty hands, stays on your hands. Add a little water as you wash and it will remove EVERYTHING you can get on your hands or clothing when working on a truck. A pumice stone is needed for paint and filler. Refill pump bottle with the large economy size.

I use Simple Green to clean some parts that don't have much grease, just dirt. Gas is fast!
No matter what you use, you always have to get the major thick grease off first by scraping or needling.

I think I dittoed most of what Allen Lane said. Those Texas boys are always one boot scoot ahead of everybody else.

Ditto to what Allen Lane has said; it saves a lot of cleaner if you scrape as much off as you can first, then use the cleaner. I use jet A that has been sumped, so it cannot be put back in an aircraft unless it has been refiltered.

Caution!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Carefully weigh each suggestion and choose the right one for your specific needs. Stovebolt.com does not endorse the use of caustic or flame producing materials for parts cleaning. Proceed at your own risk.

As a kid, my Dad was always in the small detached garage working on old cars.
Of course I was his shadow and he would let me help.
There was an old wood stove by the work bench to break the winter chill.
Many times I would clean parts in a oil drain pan, with gas, next to the lit wood stove, to keep warm.
That would probably be considered child endangerment now.

Don

The thing that makes gasoline so hazardous is that it has a flash point of -40F, versus ~140F for diesel fuel, kerosene, or stoddard solvent (which should be the go-to for parts cleaning if you're going to use a hydrocarbon product.)

We did tons of things in the old days that would get you in trouble with OSHA, or whatever. Like using a cutting torch in a tunnel under the sidewalk of a gas station to cut and plug a leaking water line.

Most of this stuff is "dangerous" one way or another. But with a little caution we will all live thru it. If not, if you are afraid to start carbureted trucks, or go to the gas station or fill your lawn mowers or clean your paint brushes, or thin some paint or spray some bugs or have a fireplace or clean a gas tank or soak a carb or cross the street or have a gun in the house............. and, OK Jerry, I will throw in: if you are afraid to use an ammeter.........then you can't function.

When I use gas I just don't give it a chance to hurt me. It's pretty simple to do. It's pretty easy to make up a scenario where it will start a fire or blow up, but if you are sane and have your wits, you are in control.......... as I said, no left over stuff to store (which is in the category of danger). You just keep it for the lawn mower or put it in your truck.

If you are cleaning outside, 5 yards from anything and not smoking, gas will not hurt you. All the advice on Stovebolt regarding matters that can be dangerous like this are just like not using jack stands or safety goggles........it assumes a person is cognizant and aware of the world.
I hope we know that telling what I do or recommend is not an endorsement from Stovebolt.com. I agree with Martin's caution.

Gas will dry your hands out bad also.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not endorsing the use.
That was back in the 60's.
Be aware of your surroundings, with anything you do.

Don

The longer the exposure (on hands) and the more exposures, the worse the odds of developing problem.

Better safe than sorry?

I usually don't stick my hands in the gas. If that is what everybody means. I spay it on a part and brush the part with a brush. Get it clean and wash the part and my hands with soap. No exposure to hands. I wear googles to protect my eyes from brush splatter. When I needle, my hands are not involved with gas either. Sometimes I wear rubber gloves. What's the fuss here?

If I use gas, it is in a well-ventilated area (exhaust fan in the area), and I wear very heavy "long" rubber gloves and safety googles.

Ahaa! So you do use gas, busted Tim

If I do not have a cleaning solvent in my tank, I would first try to use kerosene/diesel if I want to live dangerously (less dangerous than gasoline).

I think that the 5 gallon cans of paint thinner at Home Depot is mostly, if no all mineral spirits.

Yep, I've done all the above.....back in my teen years I'd clean parts for my brothers with a cigarette hanging in my mouth.....but I haven't smoked in a hundred years since.

For the kerosene you can dump it in the cleaning tank and as HRL suggested you can add some stuff to it to kill the smell. I think he said some kind of mint that you can get at the drug store....Jerry, what was it. I have a short memory these days.


....and I do as I think Tim said, once clean I like to hit stuff with a little brake clean but lately there doesn't seem to be as much in a can and its doubled in price compared to what I use to buy it by the case.

That's what I use. It works well and does not leave an oily film like diesel fuel and some others.

I go to my local parts store and buy varsol...which is a solvent specifically for parts washer..much safer than gas or diesel and kerosene. But no matter what a person uses, using rubber work gloves a "best practice". Believe it or not our skin absorbers any type of cleaning agent and whatever kind of crud that is mixed in it.aka toxins. And as this is a whole another discussion, I'll stop.!

Varsol is Exxon's TM'd brandname for what is essentially mineral spirits, like it but just not as handy for me. As said above, Diesel, Kerosene, Min Spirits all have similar flash points which for me is the most important tradeoff for washing parts. Most paint thinners contain acetone and has a flash point much closer to gasoline, The litmus test for me is if I can put a little in the bottom of a paint can outside, I can light a small piece of newspaper and set the fire inside the liquid without it catching fire. Always use with gloves in my parts washer. Another one of 100's of very dangerous things in my shop that we all use our good judgement for using every day.

I've been using a mix of half and half of Simply Green and mineral spirits in the parts washer.

Someone needs to devise a test for comparing the effectiveness of the different products for cleaning different types of grunge.

Good idea, Carl

Thanks for volunteering?

Suggestions for test samples:

intake manifold
water pump
oil pan
clutch housing

Back in 1967 my friend and I were working on a teacher's vehicle in Shop Class. I asked Harold to retrieve a part from the parts cleaner. Unknown to us a previous class student had cleaned some carburetors in it, and did not remove the gas from them before putting them in the parts cleaner. When Harold opened the lid, it exploded. Knocked me backwards and burned the eyebrows off of Harold. I have never trusted parts cleaners since. I'll use a bucket and brush and clean my parts outside of my workshop. And yes, sometimes I use gas to do it, but NEVER inside a building.

Rick

The trouble is there are many kinds of 'grunge.'

Ed

What has been the most challenging grunge to remove for you?
I would have to say cooked on carbon. I don't think that there is anything available any longer which will touch that. You pretty much have to get it off by mechanical means rather than chemically.
So lets take that of the list.
What's next near the top of the list?