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Best way to clean greasy dirty parts

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by pzofsak, Aug 4, 2013.

  1. pzofsak
    Joined: Jun 26, 2012
    Posts: 18

    pzofsak
    Member
    from texas

    I am finally on the reassemble part of my project and the greasy dirty parts I keep having to deal with are really becoming time consuming. Currently I am soaking all my parts in degreaser for a day or so, scrubbing, resoaking, and then hitting with a wire brush before a final wash and dry to ready for paint. Is there a better way? I have heard about acid dipping but don't know much else about it. I could get the parts sandblasted but the sandblaster wants them to be degreased before he does anything. I had a parts washer but that seemed to take a lot of time as well. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
     
  2. Oven cleaner.
     
  3. I use greased lightning,,spray it on let it sit a while and hose off.

    If the parts are real greasy use easy off oven cleaner,,it works great. HRP
     
  4. 3wLarry
    Joined: Mar 11, 2005
    Posts: 12,804

    3wLarry
    Member Emeritus
    from Owasso, Ok

    local high pressure car wash
     
    kidcampbell71 likes this.

  5. mashed
    Joined: Oct 15, 2011
    Posts: 1,473

    mashed
    Member
    from 4077th

    Scrape off as much grease as you can and dispose of it properly.

    Don't send it down the drain to be someone else's problem. Because it will.

    Ask me how I know.
     
  6. Rickybop
    Joined: May 23, 2008
    Posts: 9,605

    Rickybop
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    A steam cleaner is awesome. But not always available. Years ago, an auto repair shop owner, a friend of my dad, let me go over there and use his. Holy crap...that thing did a job on the grease...the paint...my face...lol.

    Recently though, I was cleaning a cruddy engine. Ran out of kerosene and didn't wanna use gas of course. Had no oven cleaner. I've always been impressed by how well Fast Orange hand cleaner gets the grease off my hands. So...I slathered some on the engine block. Started to melt the grease pretty good...actually dripping off the engine. Took a parts-cleaning brush to it, and it went even faster.
     
  7. I know some use brake cleaner too. I just scrape of as much crud as i can, uhen use petrol or thinners to wipe off the rest. A large ultrasonic tank would work great, but whos got one of those. I use a small one in the studio.
     
  8. greaseyknight
    Joined: Sep 27, 2010
    Posts: 225

    greaseyknight
    Member
    from Burley WA

    Best idea I ever saw is to hook a pressure washer up to your hot water heater, poor mans steam cleaner.
     
  9. fastcar1953
    Joined: Oct 23, 2009
    Posts: 3,567

    fastcar1953
    Member

    power washer or electric wire brush
     
  10. RayJarvis
    Joined: Oct 11, 2010
    Posts: 209

    RayJarvis
    Member

    be careful hooking up a pressure washer to hot water as not all pressure washers are designed for hot water. you could kill the pressure washer
     
  11. X2, I've hosed off several engine/trans combos and a few engine bays this way. Best $3 I've spent, the heat and pressure work wonders and there's no clean up. Set up parts to be washed, hose them off with engine degreaser, wait and then blast them off. Even though they have a engine degreaser setting I would think that washing off really greasy parts would be a no no, so I go late at night to a 24hr place.....last thing I did was to clean out the chunks of my lubester and it worked great.
     
  12. put all your greasy parts in a wire basket and take to the truck stop wash rack, get your parts steam cleaned for little of nothing and you don't have to clean up the mess
     
  13. pzofsak
    Joined: Jun 26, 2012
    Posts: 18

    pzofsak
    Member
    from texas

    At the truck stop, is that self service or would it be something they perform?
     
  14. YOLO
    Joined: Jan 28, 2010
    Posts: 67

    YOLO
    Member

    I have always used Simple Green. Biodegradable and works great.
     
  15. mechanic58
    Joined: Mar 21, 2010
    Posts: 681

    mechanic58
    Member

    I have a varsol vat in my shop - I usually take the really nasty shit and let it soak in there over night. I don't scrape any of it off in my vat - I just let it soak and get saturated. Then I take it out and scrape what I can off with a putty knife; then for the last step I hit it with my pressure washer and it usually does the trick.

    I stopped taking my filthy shit to the local car washes just about the time I finally 'grew up'. No one wants to deal with your mess at the car wash when they're trying to wash their car - I don't and I wouldn't wish it on anyone else. I make all my messes on my own property and then I clean them up.
     
    FAKKY likes this.
  16. HUSSEY
    Joined: Feb 16, 2010
    Posts: 628

    HUSSEY
    Member

    I have a cheap parts washing tub with kerosene in it. I let my stuff soak and brush it clean. All the crap settles in the kerosene so its easy to siphon off the clean fluid and dispose of the dirty stuff. Kerosene out of a pump is about $4.50/gal.
     
  17. jazz1
    Joined: Apr 30, 2011
    Posts: 1,534

    jazz1
    Member

    simple green in the dishwasher for small parts
     
  18. stimpy
    Joined: Apr 16, 2006
    Posts: 3,546

    stimpy

    at the bodyshop I had my car at he had a old dishwasher just for parts cleaning , used liquid tide in it its amazing how well it cleaned parts ( make sure you disconnect the power to the heater coil to prevent a fire and you have to run the drain water into a 55 gallon drum to skim off the oil wastes and catch the dirt .) at the shop I worked at we had a steam jenny , wish I had one at the house ..
     
  19. pzofsak
    Joined: Jun 26, 2012
    Posts: 18

    pzofsak
    Member
    from texas

    So far I have used a combination of soaking in simple green, scrubbing with a wire brush, rinsing, easy off, rinse, and repeat. I am on my third cycle and I think this should do it, there was some really built up hard grease on this part; and of course in the crevices where the brush won't reach. I had to get rid of my parts washer when we moved, I really regret that now.
     
  20. Pete1
    Joined: Aug 23, 2004
    Posts: 2,253

    Pete1
    Member
    from Wa.

    I box up everything but the aluminum and pot metal stuff and take it to the local automotive/truck machine shop and have it soaked it their hot tank overnight.
    They come back looking like new. They have to deal with the mess.
    The cost is cheap compared to cleaning up the mess at home.
     
  21. tfeverfred
    Joined: Nov 11, 2006
    Posts: 15,791

    tfeverfred
    Member Emeritus

    Some things just take common sense, cleaner and elbow grease. What's the hurry? Use the cleaning time to work out other problems in your head.
     
  22. dullchrome
    Joined: Jan 15, 2009
    Posts: 987

    dullchrome
    Member
    from SoCal

    I have used dish washing soap with good results.
     
  23. I thought it was implied that I meant all the dirty water/oils go into the clarifier NOT that you should leave the bay a pigsty.
     
  24. David Atkins
    Joined: Dec 31, 2009
    Posts: 340

    David Atkins
    Member

    PineSol is great for cleaning dirty carburetors and greasy parts. Leave them in there two or three days. It gets rid of light rust also.
     

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