Grease and Grime

[Handmedown]

I am frustrated. I had my engine rebuilt and just got it back from the machine shop and it is beautiful, but my pan and valve covers need to be cleaned and painted. I have used chemicals until i was dizzy and wire brush until i was sweating, there has to be an easier way. Please any ideas? Thanks

[dmack91]

How about soaking it with degreaser and taking it to a pressure washer car wash?

A decent pressure washer will strip any grease with ease from past experience.

[rsavage]

It is a nasty job. I use a putty knife to scrape off all the grease that I can, then wash in my parts washer. I do a final cleaning with mineral spirits soaked rags. Valve covers will fit in my bead blast cabinet but oil pans won't. In either case, I use a paint/varnish stripper and coarse steel wool to remove the old paint.

[mcmlxix]

Take a heavy black plastic garbage bag and put the parts inside. put in a cup of ammonia, in a glass bowl/dish/cup into the bag next to it. fill the bag with air and tie it shut. The vapors from the ammonia should break down all the grime.....

[KEL]

Is this for real ?
Never heard of such a thing !

[Longhorn Man]

drop off your greasey grimey gopher guts at the machine shop, toss them a 20, and come back in the moring to pick up your clean virgin metal parts.

[cdowns]

i just scrape with putty knife then a thick coat of oven cleaner/put in plastic bag for awhile so it doesnt dryout as fast then i power wash and scotchbrite them followed by a light beadblasting session scotchbrite them again and they're ready for paint

[Fitz]

Soak them overnight in a bucket of mineral spirits, rinse with a hose then smear on any cheap paint remover....no oil, no grease, no paint, no problem!

[DT1]

I'm not sure how much you want to spend but the best thing to do is to get them as clean as possible and run them for sand blasting and powder coating.
They will look great, hold up much better than paint and will be solvent resistant.

[JORGIE95961]

GRAB A PUTTY KNIFE AND SCRPE THE BIG CHUNKS OFF... THEN GET A CONATINER BIG ENOUGH TO SET PART IN .. NET GRABNBA BIG THICK BRISLED PAINT BRUS AND SOME GASOLINE AND HAVE AT IT!! iI usualy then take some dawn a scotchbrite and some 320 for finl cleanin!!1

[cdowns]

a very unsafe dangerous practice is using gasoline as a cleaning solvent and it is not at all unusual for it to end badly with a large explosion and fire

CAUTION

[DT1]

Originally Posted by cdowns

a very unsafe dangerous practice is using gasoline as a cleaning solvent and it is not at all unusual for it to end badly with a large explosion and fire

CAUTION

You're right. Very dangerous!! I've been using gasoline as a solvent for 45 years and I realize the danger. It hasn't stopped me though. It's the best solvent I've ever used.
A friend told me that I was going to die in a most unusual way. Probably something that has to do with a large screw driver and electricity. Or maybe gasoline.

[Lippyp]

Paraffin (Kerosene to you!) works almost as well as gas if you haven't got any proper degreaser. Mine get a soak in a good quality degreaser called Gunk (may well just bee a UK brand) after any lumpy bits have been scraped/wirebrushed off, after that another wire brush, a good rinse and then to remove rust I use a product called DEOX-C from a company called Bilt-Hamber, you dissolve the white powder in water, preferably warm (I keep meaning to build a hot tank with something like a fishtank heater as it works even better if you keep it kind of blood temp) and drop the parts in, leave 24 hours and the rust has turned to black sludge that just wipes/brushes off, a good rinse and its ready for paint or whatever. The great thing about DEOC-C is you can dunk your hand in it and it won't hurt you as its waterbased and non toxic, no nasty fumes and when its used up down the drain it goes. It really does work too, the picture below shows some old steel shutters from my house in France, they'd clearly not seen paint since about WWII, one quick buzz over with a wire wheel in an angle grinder and a 24 hour soak in a hole dug in the earth cellar floor lined with plastic and they came out looking like they'd been sandblasted.

[maskale]

I run the end of my hose down into my gas tank, turn on the pressure washer. Im telling u, nothing cleans better then gas at 3800psi and 4gpm.

Gets a little expensive though.

[maskale]

Another option is, I buy purple power or similar in the big jugs, 2.5 gallons for 10-12$ each. Pure that into a 1 gal pump up sprayer with a fan tip. Makes it easy to really cover a large area quickly, let soak, hit it with the pressure washer. Let dry, and repeat, by then its grease free. If its bear metal that ur cleaning, do it in the sun or use a leaf blower to dry quickly and there wont be any rust spots show up.