MTFCA Forum

Just tried a solution to clean parts ...
Hot Water & Dawn x5 Powerwash dish soap.
Spray parts with Dawn, let set for a minute then brush in the hot water. 2nd application might be needed, but ECO friendly & easy to dispose of.
Worked well on 40yrs of grease & crud.

John M.
Oscoda, Mich

Its amazing stuff. Starting to use it more and more. Bought my own bottles for the shop.

I think the hot water helps a lot along with soap. Probably the best to clean up an engine or large greasy parts is a steam cleaner. Most don’t have a steam cleaner but a much more affordable alternative is a pressure pressure and use soap with it. Besides washing car parts it’s great to use on sidewalks, brick houses and porches.

During the summer when I was in collage I worked for a mechanic that was in the Luftwaffe during WW2 (prisoner-of-war somewhere in Iowa & an escapee from East Germany). To degrease parts he'd fill a metal bucket with water, place the parts in it and the heat it with a immersion heater similar to the one pictured and let them soak for a while in near boiling water. His secret ingredient was a cup of oil dry, some how it soaked up the oils that floated to the top. Heat melts the grease. Dawn & similar products use "surfactants", chemicals that reduce the surface tension of water, allowing it to penetrate and lift away grease, and soap that breaks down the grease into smaller drops so it can mix with water.

I also have a steam cleaner that works very well after you scrap of the layers of "barn cement" (grease/oil mixed with mud & fine dust)

With the demise of Gunk SC, I am now making my own with naphtha, try-propylene glycol, and Dawn dish soap. Cut the finished mixture with kerosene and it is like the 1950's all over again!

TRDxB2 wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 12, 2024 12:19 am

I also have a steam cleaner that works very well after you scrap of the layers of "barn cement" (grease/oil mixed with mud & fine dust)
steem.png

TRDxB2:

Who makes that nifty steam cleaner, and how can we order one? Thanks!

Sincerely,

RB

Amazon has budget friendly steam cleaners along with Harbour Freight tools. Not bad for the prices either.

Loftfield wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 12, 2024 7:12 am

With the demise of Gunk SC, I am now making my own with naphtha, try-propylene glycol, and Dawn dish soap. Cut the finished mixture with kerosene and it is like the 1950's all over again!

I'm skipping all the additives and using up my #2 heating oil, we switch up to inverter heat-pump, and I can filter out the trash and burn it in the torpedo heater later.

As far as Eco-Friendly, d-limonene is eco-friendly too, until it's not. The oils do not magically disappear, nor convert to something else eco-friendly, it's just smaller matter ready to filter through the ground back into the water table.

Rick_Benjamin wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 12, 2024 8:25 am

TRDxB2 wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 12, 2024 12:19 am

I also have a steam cleaner that works very well after you scrap of the layers of "barn cement" (grease/oil mixed with mud & fine dust)
steem.png

TRDxB2:

Who makes that nifty steam cleaner, and how can we order one? Thanks!

Sincerely,

RB

That one is sold by Home Depot. In looking at the one that Harbor Freight sells I'd say its the same tools & function just a different housing. They only use about a cup of water but generate lots of working time. I scrapped all as much as I can then steam it off. Place a large Rubbermade storage container under the item to capture the mess.

Separate process to be environmentally proactive. I pure all my water based toxic wast into a 5gal plastic bucket. The liquid evaporates and at some point I'll take the bucket to the recycling center.

Instead of using a power washer and the contaminating the area - I'll take the item to the self service car wash & used their power washer, soap cycle & drain

My wallpaper steamer would probably work for cleaning parts. After steaming the last of the never returning wallpaper, I gave the steamer to my son. I still don't want it back because my wife might get some funny ideas.

Art Mirtes

Art M wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 15, 2024 10:01 pm

My wallpaper steamer would probably work for cleaning parts. After steaming the last of the never returning wallpaper, I gave the steamer to my son. I still don't want it back because my wife might get some funny ideas.

Art Mirtes

When ones wife is properly functioning, the ideas come without regard as to the tool location and ownership!

I take stuff to my machine shop where they still have a hot tank.
Cost me little to nothing compared to buying all that cleaner and disposing of the used products.