Are there engine degreasers that won't kill your lawn and still get the job done? I'm getting ready to install an engine and transmission in my '50 3100 that need a thorough cleaning. I have a power washer which I plan to use only if the degreaser residue doesn't kill all living things it comes in contact with! (I'm not concerned about the engine grime residue). Still trying to get grass to grow from this spring after using Gunk to clean a lawnmower. Doing this outside my shop will be much easier than going to the carwash and dragging along the cherry picker to unload and reload plus the twenty bucks to complete the job.
Dawn dish soap. If it cleans oily ducks it’ll clean a greasy motor!ðŸ›
Martin '62 Chevy C-10 Stepside Shortbed (Restomod in progress) '47 Chevy 3100 5 Window (long term project) ‘65 Chevy Biscayne (Emily) ‘39 Dodge Business Coupe (Clarence) “I fought the law and the law won" now I are a retired one! Support those brave men/women who stand the "Thin Blue Line"! Hug a cop! USAF 1965-1969 Weather Observation Tech (I got paid to look at the clouds)
I've used Crud Cutter, which is supposed to be non-toxic/biodegradable. It might be the oil, not the Gunk, from the lawnmower that did the grass in. But Dawn should work as well. Wife: "Where's my dish soap??" You: "I don't know" (while hiding the evidence)
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
Have you got a neighbor you don't like? Park the truck so the runoff drains his direction! I use a strong solution of Trisodium Phosphate, mixed with water to form a thin paste and applied with a brush. Let it soak a couple of days and hit it with a pressure washer. TSP powder is sold at big box hardware stores like Home Depot as concrete driveway cleaner. Isn't phosphate a major component of fertilizer? It might actually help the grass grow!
I've also immersed engine blocks and heads in a 55 gallon drum of water sitting on a couple of concrete blocks with a box of Tide laundry powder and 2 cans of lye dissolved in the water and built a fire under the barrel. After a day of boiling, the parts were clean down to bare cast iron! Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
Have you got a neighbor you don't like? Park the truck so the runoff drains his direction! I use a strong solution of Trisodium Phosphate, mixed with water to form a thin paste and applied with a brush. Let it soak a couple of days and hit it with a pressure washer. TSP powder is sold at big box hardware stores like Home Depot as concrete driveway cleaner. Isn't phosphate a major component of fertilizer? It might actually help the grass grow!
I've also immersed engine blocks and heads in a 55 gallon drum of water sitting on a couple of concrete blocks with a box of Tide laundry powder and 2 cans of lye dissolved in the water and built a fire under the barrel. After a day of boiling, the parts were clean down to bare cast iron! Jerry
ZEP purple .........which is similar to Purple power, Super Clean and other purple cleaners but stronger. Simple Green is a weak version of the Purple cleaners. The PH numbers on ZEP are strong. All purple cleaners including SimpleGreen can mark Or discolor aluminum also may damage paint. Full strength purple cleaners can damage aluminum. All these super cleaners are not to used on aircraft.
I have back in the dark ages. put the engine in a trailer and gone to a coin operated car wash. The kind you do it yourself. not the drive through. Just to be clear.
In a degreasing of the second kind, my friend used to tow his large pig roaster on wheels after the roast to a local do-it-yourself car wash.....at 3 AM. Really bad. I think they now have surveillance cameras for him.
33 Years. Now with a '61 261, 848 head, Rochester Monojet carb, SM420 4-speed, 4.10 rear, dual reservoir MC, Bendix up front, 235/85R16 tires, 12-volt w/alternator, electric wipers and a modern radio in the glove box.
52Carl...you can actually rent stolen pressure washers? I don't want to chance it.
Hey! Where's the Moderator for reeling in the smart Alecks going off topic in these serious threads, why, the nerve of some people, I never... Well maybe once or twice.
1952 5-window - return to "as built" condition | 1950 3100 with a 235 and a T-5 transmission
Rocket man If you have a sandblast gun that is a syphon type you could mix-up your cleaner and blast it on your engine with force let it set then use your pressure washer to finish it up. Put it on HOT if youcan,wash off hot if possible.
Most of the wand car washes prohibit washing engines, etc. Although I've done that once or twice. They do process the recycled water to remove big chunks, though.
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
I have struggled with this for some time and what I ended up doing was purchasing a blow up child's pool, sitting the motor in the pool or hanging it over the pool, and using mineral spirits and a stiff brush to get the worst of it off. The pool catches the run off and big chunks, and is a little easier to capture, reuse, clean up, and later disposed of. Once the mineral spirits and big chunks are cleaned out of the pool in round 1, I go to the spray. I have tried the purple stuff, the crud cutter, simple green, dawn. The best one that I have found that works is the degreaser spray sold by eastwood. The others work, in varying degrees, so if that is what you have, those produces are usable, you will just need more time scrubbing.
A galvanized stock watering tank sold at a local farm supply store would be more durable than a blow-up doll- - - -er, "pool" for recycling solvent, in my decidedly biased opinion! LOL! Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
When I am done with the blow up doll, er pool, I just slice a gash into it, fold it up and dispose of it. Nothing to store nothing bulky. One and done, lol.
A friend used to roast pigs in a rented rig. In the wee hours of the morning, he used to go to the car wash to clean the rig up. You definitely did not want to follow him to wash your car.
33 Years. Now with a '61 261, 848 head, Rochester Monojet carb, SM420 4-speed, 4.10 rear, dual reservoir MC, Bendix up front, 235/85R16 tires, 12-volt w/alternator, electric wipers and a modern radio in the glove box.
I remember using Easy-Off oven cleaner, but it is pretty caustic so must use rubber gloves with a mask and may not be good for your yard. Spray it on and let it work follow with a pressure washer.
I remember using Easy-Off oven cleaner, but it is pretty caustic so must use rubber gloves with a mask and may not be good for your yard. Spray it on and let it work follow with a pressure washer.
If I want to degrease a cast iron engine that I is NOT in a vehicle, I remove the aluminum parts and use Easy-Off oven cleaner. For the distributor, I remove the cap put a ziploc bag over the distributor and zip-tie the bag at the base of the distributor. Easy-Off is a caustic based cleaner that works extremely well. It even removes paint. I have been using Easy-Off for many years. Do yourself a favor and wear goggles and long heavy rubber gloves. And as terry said: Spray it on, let it work and follow-up with a pressure washer
On modern engines with aluminum heads and blocks, Easy-Off may not be the best choice.
The more responses HotRod Lincoln make, the more I need to meet this guy. Sounds like someone I would get along great with.
On a side note I am trying to clean my trans and soon engine. Not much is touching some of this hard as concrete gunk. I am going to try the oven cleaner method tomorrow and hook my power washer up to the HW tank to see what happens.
If all else fails, has anyone used carbon tet? I have a few gallons left to me by my father. I have used it sparingly to de carbon things like stuck glow plugs etc over the years. I don't want to waste it cause you can't get it anymore and I can't get rid of it cause hazardous material day in my town about called in a emergency response team 20 years ago when I tried to get rid of it for my father.
Come on down anytime- - - -I'm always happy to do a meet & greet with a fellow stovebolter. I've heard a pretty well substantiated rumor that the yankee hunting season closed around 1865, even on a dead end gravel road out in the backwoods like my place! Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
Carbon Tet has a well-deserved bad reputation for causing some serious health concerns, including some types of cancer. Back in the dark ages it was used in the old brass canister fire extinguishers, and machinists loved the stuff as a drilling and tapping lubricant. If you choose to use it as a degreaser, have a fan going to blow the fumes away from yourself to avoid breathing them. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
Carbon Tet can be lethal, that is why it was outlawed. It may even be illegal to possess it!
Martin '62 Chevy C-10 Stepside Shortbed (Restomod in progress) '47 Chevy 3100 5 Window (long term project) ‘65 Chevy Biscayne (Emily) ‘39 Dodge Business Coupe (Clarence) “I fought the law and the law won" now I are a retired one! Support those brave men/women who stand the "Thin Blue Line"! Hug a cop! USAF 1965-1969 Weather Observation Tech (I got paid to look at the clouds)
Another solvent that's fallen out of favor is Trichloroethane. We used it by the 55 gallon drum on Air Force flight lines for washing and degreasing airplane parts. Some of the new recruits who enlisted in the late 1960's with a drug habit would get high by huffing the stuff. It was a lot easier to obtain in quantity than the airplane glue they were hooked on! Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
Dollar Store oven cleaner & Westleys Tire cleaner have washed a many of engines for my old cars & tractors. Another product from the dollar store I use quite a bit for soaking greasy parts, is purple cleaner/purple power. Works very well & can be diluted.
On the Westleys and oven cleaner, you want to keep it off aluminum, but cast iron & steel, its fine.
One of the least expensive, yet most effective grease cutters is Trisodium Phosphate. It's available at most big box hardware stores, sold as "concrete cleaner". It's a white powder that can be mixed with water into a brushable paste. Apply it liberally to a greasy engine with a disposable paintbrush, let it work awhile, and hit the engine with a pressure washer (hot water if possible). Be aware that it will soften or remove paint, so be prepared to repaint anything you use it on. I use it in a very hot water (not quite boiling) soak tank to degrease firearm parts prior to bluing.
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
I use compressed air siphon spray with gasoline far away from any sparks and several widths of putty knives and wire brushes, scrub, let it soak, scrub some more, gets it really clean, just have to be careful with the gasoline.
Ed
'37 GMC T-18 w/ DD 4-53T, RTO-610, 6231 aux., '95 GMC running gear, full disc brakes, power steering, 22.5 wheels and tires. '47 GMC 1 ton w/ 302, NP-540, 4wd, full width Blazer front axle. '54 GMC 630 w/ 503 gasser, 5 speed, ex fire truck, shortened WB 4', install 8' bed. '55 GMC 370 w/270, 420 4 speed, grain, dump bed truck from ND. Works OK.
Gasoline in a siphon spray can develop static electricity and thus a spark. Gas shouldn't be used at all. It has a flash point of -40F, meaning that it will five off enough vapor to ignite at that temperature. I used Crud Cutter (a water based product) when cleaning my engine for painting. Better to use something safe rather than risking using something as flammable as gasoline.
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
Ferris - you can only hope that Jerry likes you and you pass the test. Otherwise he may move in next door to you and degrease his stash of old engines next to your property line. I’ve seen stranger things.
I'd like to know what they use at the local car wash for their degreaser. Whatever it is it's like spraying hot water on fresh mud.
Save a life, adopt a senior shelter pet. The three main causes of blindness: Cataracts, Politics, Religion. Name your dog Naked so you can walk Naked in the park.
Ferris - you can only hope that Jerry likes you and you pass the test. Otherwise he may move in next door to you and degrease his stash of old engines next to your property line. I’ve seen stranger things.
What ever kills the grass so I don't have to mow it.
