Just bought a new part's washer, only going to clean race engine part's, what are you using for solvent? that is not to much $$$$$?
Normal solvent (naptha/mineral spirits), about $35/5 gal pail from the oil distributor, last time I bought some.
Kerosene is my choice of solvents and has been for the last 50 years. It is soothing to the hands while not drying the skin and cleans and degreases parts great. Left to dry the parts can be painted without any further preparation.
I am with Squirrel here, been using it for 20 plus years without any difficulty. Gets the parts clean, and I still do additional cleaning on anything I am going to paint. The fluid in the washer does not stay clean long when washing parts, and just a quick wipe with oil/grease remover doesn't take long..
Thats cheap, Just bought some $80/ 5gal. They claim when the price oil went up the parts cleaner doubled. Ago
I use low flash mineral spirits in my parts washer. Crystal Clean Co. comes a couple times a year and cleans my washer out, recycles the old and puts in new for $90
Yeah... I bought some from my dealer here, solvent. $8.55 a gallon! Needless to say, parts are getting pre-scraped and only the necessary stuff gets solvent! Simple green and 409 were out of the question before...but both do a good job when used with a stiff brush... My engine hard parts get the solvent bath. Ever had to soak something? I went to Target and bought 2 plastic tubs, mixed some WD40 (the gallon cans, Home Depot on sale) with an equal amount of diesel. Let pistons, rods, cranks, cams, etc. soak for a number of days...(mostly 2, but the stubborn for 4 days) If you forget they're in there, a film will settle on the parts...just like cosmolene. (THAT takes a couple of months) But a great parts cleaner, just remember you have stuff in there.
Interesting, I bought it last august, and the price of gasoline has gone down 10% since then. I got it in tucson, which seems to have about the lowest prices in the country right now for gasoline. My guess is that I got a good deal because I got it from a friendly distributor, and you got it from a price gouging distributor
Thank you all, But what i'am looking for is non flammable nontoxic but will clean 70w oil of the heads and pan, for real cleaning I use brake clean
What ever you do, NEVER buy that stuff at Harbor Freight!!! In my engine shop there are always two parts washers. One for general cleaning and one just for final assembly and bearings. I once mixed up a batch and tried the H/F stuff, a few days later I opened the lid, and the spring literally disolved and the mechanism to hold the spring looked like it had been in the ocean salt water for 20 years. The pump motor no longer worked at all. To top things off, when I drained out the liquid death, all the paint was gone up to the fluid line, bare shiny metal. No, it was NOT a H/F parts washer, just the solvent. TR
I prefer Cambells Soup, the new lower sodium stuff!! Seriously , I'm a firm believer in mineral spirits and then the hot soapy Tide. This is regardless of what the engine has been subject to or used for, just my humble opinion, TR
Every one I ever used had kero in it. Can buy it at the gas station for something like $4 a gallon. Flammable, of course.
If you have any friends into boats, the marina and boat repair/fiberglass shops are the places to get decent prices on 5 gallon pails of mineral spirits.
I switched from kero to purple power this year. the stories on line say not to run it straight cause it will eat aluminum, and degrease skin real aggressively too, so I started at about 2 parts water to 1part PPower. It cleans OK, but I need to keep a pail of water nearby to rinse. Also seems to evaporate out of the cleaner sump barrel pretty quick. It turned into a popsicle in the garage last week. I hope it didn;t kill the pump. I'lll probably look into how well it mixes with kerosene as antifreeze and to slow the evaporation rate
Ours looks something like this http://www.google.com/products/cata...=X&ei=pZTyToLGOITW0QGy4N2ZAg&ved=0CJUBEPMCMAU# although there's a big tank under ours... full of kerosene.
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