Is there anything better than Gunnk for cleaning the crap off my donor parts?

Two applications with a stiff brush to my gearbox on Sunday, rinsed with lots of water... still covered in grease.

Is there anything more effective, or do I just need more elbow grease!

use gunk, then blast it with a pressure washer. I hired a decent one - never bought one of those 50 quid jobbies, so I cant say if they would be as good.

My end result had a nice squeaky clean engine with little effort.

a few pics before and after on my site. A bit of paint was applied to get final effect tho!

atb

steve

[Edited on 29/11/04 by stephen_gusterson]

Mr Muscle oven cleaner followed by lots of white spirit and a stiff brush, and plentiful use of 'the tool'. not exactly simple or quick but it did the job

Tim,

You leaving the Gunk to work in?

Once it's on go for a cup of tea- once you've finished your 3rd biccie it should all be good!

HTH,
James

What about marine clean or what ever the por-15 stuff is (web search for frosts automotive to find a uk supplier)

Marine Clean's good stuff, but don't dilute as much as they say you can - I use it neat, or 1:1 with water. Has to be rinsed off, but it's 'environmentally friendly' according to the container - once it's diluted a lot by rinsing then its run-off won't poison the garden.

Rinsing with a pressure-washer's fine if you're going to strip the engine, but I'd be very careful if you want to use the engine without restoration - the water will get in everywhere! Water in the sump isn't A Good Thing...

David

[Edited on 29/11/04 by David Jenkins]

Marine clean may well be 'environmentaly friendly' but the stuff it's mixed with when you wash it off??

Mick

Powerwasher followed by parafin followed by powerwasher - comes up like new!

quote:

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Originally posted by Mix
Marine clean may well be 'environmentaly friendly' but the stuff it's mixed with when you wash it off??

Mick

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Please be careful with Pressure Washers. Mine put me in hospital for 10 days (completely paralysed) and 6 months off work recovering.

I washed the drive, and the algae on it was very toxic. I breathed it in, and my own Imune system attacked me, inflaming all the nerve endings hence the paralysis.

Now OK... engines are a bit different, However the principle is the same. A Very fine water based mist, blown up and filled with grease, dirt, muck, and chemical cleaning agents.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE... wear a face mask of even the most basic type. It will help filter out most of the crap.

Also EYE protection is a must. A chip of rust (a stone, a nail etc) powered by 1500psi of water will slice your eyeball like a razor!!!.

I have still not recovered fully 10 years on.
Everything is an effort, and pins and needles in my left hand, permanantly for 10 years is no joke. A lack of strength and no stamina does not help either. After 10 years, I do not expect ever to regain what I lost.

For the medically minded... visit :
www.gbs.org.uk

Read the descriptions, and the read the Guestbook, with some sufferers experiences.

Its not nice,

Pressure washers are a grreat tool. But living with a problem like mine is NO FUN at all.

Please take care.

put your bits in the dishwasher!!! have done 2 alloy cylinder heads in mine and they come out like brand new!!!! the joys of bein single.........

i covered up the inlets and exhausts......


atb

steve

quote:

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Originally posted by David Jenkins
Marine Clean's good stuff, but don't dilute as much as they say you can - I use it neat, or 1:1 with water. Has to be rinsed off, but it's 'environmentally friendly' according to the container - once it's diluted a lot by rinsing then its run-off won't poison the garden.

Rinsing with a pressure-washer's fine if you're going to strip the engine, but I'd be very careful if you want to use the engine without restoration - the water will get in everywhere! Water in the sump isn't A Good Thing...

David

[Edited on 29/11/04 by David Jenkins]

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If your parts are ferrous, could you not electrolyse the crap (and underlying rust off) in one step?

If the parts are painted (not plated) iron or steel, just submerge them in a bucket of strong caustic and by morning they'll be a nice ney grey colour.
If you put your aluminium parts in the same bucket, you'll just have a bucket full of dirty water in the morning.
I found that out the hard way when I was eleven. I stripped my 125 BSA Bantam and put the head and barrl in a tub of caustic. Next morning, the barrel was like new and I thought someone had nicked off with me head.

That's how to get rid of a body then, I mean an aluminium car body of course. Now where's the old tin bath?.Will it do bones as well, sorry, wishbones? It's what they use to etch aluminium plates before anodising but the timing is critical and it has to be thoroughly washed or it keeps on working.

Actually, it's also found in quite a few aluminium cleaners too! I was going to recommend it in another thread recently about cleaning aluminium bike engines, but as it's a process you don't want to get wrong, I decided not to mention it then.
I used to keep baths of weak caustic with heater elements to keep it hot. I would dunk my RV8 blocks into the baths and then dunk them in tanks of sodium metabisulphide (used for sterilising beer making equipement) or acetic acid (commercial grade vinegar) to arrest the process and neutralise the lye.
It gives absolutely perfect results, but it takes practice and a certain feel.
This bellhousing and transaxle were cleaned by this method.