What happened to Gunk?

[diffwhine]

Did the tree huggers get hold of Gunk? I tried to use the stuff in the RH side of the picture on an oily 200Tdi engine - it was about as effective as an ashtray on a motorcycle. I dug out an old bottle of original Gunk (LH side of the image) and it cut through all the muck in seconds.

Why bother even selling anything called Gunk if it won't work?

Rant over...  

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[simonbav]

Carcinogenic if I remember right. I loved that old green stuff. I felt like a grown man when my dad permitted me to use some to clean my hands after some job I'd helped him with way back

[nathanglasgow]

Are you not remembering Swarfega?
My old man was too tight to buy that. He used a hand full of Flora margarine.

[simonbav]

Are you not remembering Swarfega?

Yes Nathan, cheers, I just hopped back on here to change it ^ 

[GHOBHW]

also used the modern stuff, useless on properly "gunked" parts, but its decent enough on smaller bits.

for thick grease and stuff now I just throw a load of petrol on it and use a stiff brush

[Dopey]

I use paraffin now, it still had that oily feel to is as well

[nathanglasgow]

I just use petrol now too

[Worf]

I am all for "green" if what is now sold to do a job that the "nasty" old stuff did, actually worked. I cant think of many (any?) that do. Dum-dum, Nitromors, Gunk, Creosote. Celly paint. chrome plating just to name a few that have been replaced by lovely green products that dont actually work (or dont last long).

[Wittsend]

LIKe so many "formulations" the H&S zealots have literally "watered" down many products that we loved to use in the past. There's also the fact that big business have cut back on the expensive oil derived ingredients, so they can charge more for less.
What happened to Hammerite paint
What happened to Waxoyl
What happened to Nitromores paint stripper
What happened to various weed killers and pesticides
What happened to various chromium oxide pigments that went into paint, or red lead paint

The list is endless.

Big business have kept the old brand names and put them on diluted or alternative products.


 

[Ken]

They are also doing it with food. It's been found that 14% of dried herbs have been cut with undeclared material such as dried olive leaves.
Shrinkflation is the other approach. The French supermarket carfors now places a large banner next to products which have been shrunk flagging up the change.
Following it all to its eventual conclusion nothing whatever will work and we'll be offered empty packets !

[Alan Drover]

I use petrol now. It's cheaper than proprietary brands. How much would a gallon of Gunk cost?

[diffwhine]

I thought this might trigger a reaction... 

The new stuff just smells like a mild detergent which is probably all that it is. Usually I too use petrol for cleaning things, but an oily engine in a Defender is not ideally placed to be soaked in petrol, so I thought I'd use what I had to hand. Lesson. learned

[Robin]

I use Diesel rather than petrol, it's safer and does as good a job as the original Gunk.
It can leave a slightly oily residue after washing off, which can be good to stop flash rusting, but if I want that off as well I use Screwfix degreaser (which I suspect is as good as the modern Gunk) in a spray bottle afterwards and a hosing down.

I also use Diesel, or heating oil which I still have a small supply of since changing to gas, in my parts washer.

[GHOBHW]

what I never understood about this stuff is, usually when its "green" its more friendly, but doesn't even do a decent job. so you end up needing more/doing it more often, so surely it offsets the cost of it being "green" in the end.

worse paint, item rusts more often, needs to be replaced more often. type of deal

I remember reading that galvanising isn't anywhere near as good as the old stuff too

[Craig T]

Strange that petrol never occurred to me to use as a degreaser.

I have been using universal paint thinners from my local motor factors for my series one recently. That is around £12 for 5 litres but it does go a long way and I save the used stuff in another can, let the dirt settle then use it again as a pre-cleaner on the next dirty parts.
It really does clean though so you can get overnight rust on bare steel parts.

I managed to get around 10 litres of Ambersil / Amberklene Lo30 a while back. That is doing a great job on the axle parts at the minute, it's low odour hence the Lo name so less obnoxious than the paint thinners and it also doesn't evaporate as quickly. That is expensive stuff to buy though.

For the engine block I used Mr Muscle spray on oven cleaner. I sprayed it all over, worked it in with a stiff brush inside and out then pressure washed it all. That removed the black layer of carbon from inside the engine as well but you do need to wear gloves, it does burn the arms...

I did try Jizer a few years ago. Did work back then but the left over mess after washing with water was a bit difficult to deal with. Didn't do the lawn any favours....

Craig.