And I thought those darned dirty days were behind me ... help

[geoff]

 Ants in the bog - they could eat it clean     

[TimV]

I had the old dishwasher when we got a new one.

Used it, but it didn't really touch the dirt.

Bought a dedicated parts washer - much more effective.

[geoff]

Cheers Tim 

[diffwhine]

That leads on to another question - what solvent to use in a parts washer?
I tried a water based product - never ever again - completely useless and then to add insult to injury, went mouldy!

[Richard]

I know people of the motorcycle denomination who swear by Dasty. Purportedly only available at Wibra stores, a Dutch retail chain. Closer to (your) home, it's also for sale at Kemet. Here's a previous post on the subject. Contains ethanolamine, which is highly alkaline, and limonene, a highly flammable carcinogenic – in rodents at least...

Maybe we should concentrate on the protective, rust preventive function of layers of grease. It's a gear box, no, it's a Land Rover gear box, it's supposed to be greasy. A gear box you can have your diner from is so old skool...

It's a mind set thing. Gunk is Good.

Richard

[GlenAnderson]

I use Comma Hyperclean.

[diffwhine]

That's worth knowing - especially with an Opie Oils club discount.

[Ian F]

Contains ethanolamine, which is highly alkaline, and limonene, a highly flammable carcinogenic – in rodents at least...

Surely limonene is the oil found in citrus peel and essentially harmless?

Ian F

[Richard]

I don't know, I got that from a Dutch motor cyclist's forum, a post by a chemist who looked into the composition of Dasty...
Richard

[Adam1958]

I understand vitamin D in massive doses is deadly for rats, not sure about C

[Craig T]

I went for the old fashioned scrape the worst off method then through various stages of washing.
First was a wash in a previously used degreaser, (dirty AmberKlene LO-30) next was a go in a clean degreasing solvent (same Amberklen LO 30) then final stage was a wash in universal paint thinners from my local motor factor.

It got the castings vey clean to be fair but yes, a good few hours bent over, kneeling on the floor over a drip-tray washing and scrubbing the various castings.

I then went to vapour blasting. Vapour blasting is similar to glass bead, media blasting but it uses pressurised water rather than compressed air. Because of this I removed everything from the castings, studs dowels, bearings, everything.

I had some bits vapour blasted at one local company for my engine. It took about six weeks to get them back but results were very good and they were ready to screw straight back into place, not a trace of grit left anywhere.

For the gearbox casings I tried another local company, only took a week this time and the casting were clean but not quite the attention to detail of the engine bits. I also found lots of glass bead left in the various thread holes so I ended up having to wash the bits in paint thinners again and then blasting every hole and thread out with compressed air.

I was lucky to get the barrel of Amberklen solvent from a friend who found it lying about his workplace. They had a trial barrel of it once to see if they preferred it over their normal Amberklen FE 10 solvent but they didn't, so very little of it got used. I like it however but not sure I could pay £220 for 25 litres. It has been with me for many years though and has cleaned a number of engines and gearboxes. Now down to my last 0.5l or so left in the drum. 
https://www.zoro.co.uk/shop/cleaning-and-hygiene/degreasers/amberklene-lo30-lower-odour-solvent-degreasers/f/7506?query=LO30&topProduct=ZT1037241X&sku=ZT1037241X

Craig.

[geoff]

^^^ Thanks Craig

I've been in the garage doing the cleaning thing and my current experience has matched all my experiences gained over the decades ....

If you want to deal with grime you have to put in the time .... or the hard miles ... or ... whatever the saying goes...

I had started with petrol washing and scraping prior to starting this topic and then hoped for a modern shorcut, well things do move on and one can but hope of course !

I then tried the brake cleaner which dissolves the loose stuff but leaves the hard baked stuff behind..... more scaping followed.

I then tried bog cleaner out of curiosity even though it was a bit out of sequence, used Harpic Power Plus, cheap enough and does put a little brightness on the surface but will need to try this later on.

The next step was to try to get rid of the dried / caked on mud from around 65 yrs of accumulation ! 

This stuff is for me the worst to get off, nothing touches it !

While my wife is out in Bingo today I put all the casings in the kitchen sink with cleaners etc and boiling water to try and soften the mud, not much luck really as it doesn't seem to do much leaving yet more scraping to be done.

I'm curently washing up the kitchen before she comes home ... Lol !

Phase 2 will be back in the garage ....

I believe I have most of a gallon of gun wash tucked away so will give that a blast next followed by the ineivetable scraping.

A fine brass wire brush is actually quite good as it doesn't scratch the alloy surfaces though I'm yet to sort out those alloy parts that have oxidised.

Oh well back to the humdrum !!

My " friend " cannot do the cleaning himself as he has a bad chest which is a good excuse for him ( true though ) so I'm stuck with it, friends eh why do we bother Lol !!

Maybe I should get him to pay out for vapour blasting if local ?

[Craig T]

What we need really is one of those hot parts washers that engine machine shops have. They use a solvent and heat it to near boiling point then pressure wash the parts with it. Off course horrible fumes and risk of scalding from it so it's done automatically inside a sealed enclosure.
Trouble is, the amount a DIY'er would use it, it would likely pack up through lack of use.

As Mark mentioned above, Vapour blasters are very picky about putting anything dirty or oily inside their nice clean blasting cabinet so you still need to do the slow, laborious cleaning and degreasing first. Both the companies I used were very surprised I brought the parts in so clean. They both said they usually have to turn people away again when they turn up with a box of bits still covered in mud and grease!

Craig.

[Alan Drover]

Would a household steam cleaner be any good?

[Craig T]

Not sure....

I know a farmer friend of mine used to have a big Diesel powered steam cleaner mainly for the diary but it did work wonders on tractors too.

Craig.