Oil & Fuel Best way to clean oil from engine compartment

[DocHeb]

My TC40D had the failed hydrocooler problem at the hose attachment to the cooler. This sprayed hydraulic oil throughout the engine compartment last fall. I didn't do much about it in regards to cleaning off the oil.

Now the dirt and "weed dust" has started sticking, and it is starting to plug up the radiator (not to mention the general untidyness of it all.)

What would be the best way to clean all this residue? I don't have a power washer and really don't want to buy one. Will engine cleaner work, or will that strip the paint off the engine?

 

[kubotabilly]

DocHeb,
Engine degreaser and a garden hose should do the trick. Follow the directions
on the can.

Bill

 

[Soundguy]

Soap and a water hose...

Don't bend the fins in the coolers / radiators..

Soundguy

 

[Egon]

Dish soap and a hose will work too.

 

[jimmysisson]

The Purple cleaners work well and rinse off easy with garden hose. A quart spray bottle will clean up your mess, most likely.
Jim

 

[jinman]

The Purple cleaners work well and rinse off easy with garden hose. A quart spray bottle will clean up your mess, most likely.
Jim

I agree with Jim on this one. I like the purple cleaners like SuperClean. I spray them on full-strength before any water and let them soak and soften for only about a minute or two before blasting off the dirt and grease. I have tiny seeping leaks on my rear remotes and the SuperClean takes care of that in a hurry when followed with a blast of water.

 

[DieselPower]

The best cleaners for oil (organic material) is a high ph cleaner. The majority of cleaners are of the "wetting action" type and work rather well. Wetting action cleaners penetrate a soil and allows removal by floating the soap away. Emulsion action type cleaners are also available (usually the citrus based ones) and work by a solvent action with emulsifiers, helping the soil and cleaner to mix with water, turn milky and allow a clean surface to be left behind. Probably the best type cleaner is a Saponifying action type cleaner. Saponifying means to make soap. They make their own cleaner when they react with vegetable, animal and organic oils and fats to create lye soap. Caution should be used with saponifying type cleaners as they tend to be very high in ph and in high concentrations can remove paint and even disolve soft metals like aluminum.

Cleaners like Big Red Concentrate, WED-129 or Bio-Klean make great engine cleaners. Big Red and Bio-Klean being the safest with ph's in the 8-9 range. WED-129 has a ph of 12.9 and is excellent for heavy soils.

 

[grainger12002]

O.k. A little off topic but here goes. How about the black streake on the side of my r\v. I have tired but with little success removing them....easily. Anything that removes them easily also leaves spots on the siding? Maybe thers a method as well,anyway thanks


Lloyd

 

[Soundguy]

Do take care to get theose purple cleaners off after about a minute like Jinman says. Cause if you leave them on longer.. like 5-15.. they can start eating paint.

I use purple stuff as part of my paint stripping regimine when i am starting on an oldie... 15 minutes of that stuff will let me pressure wash most exterior layers of paint off pretty easilly.

soundguy

 

[DieselPower]

My school bus contractor customers have had good sucess with the Big Red in getting the black streaks off the sides of their school bus's. It has a ph of 8.9 and is safe to use on anything not harmed by water.

Depending on what the "black streaks" are you may actually have better sucess with a natural citrus based cleaner. Cleaners like Bio-Klean are citrus oil extract that are water soluable and have rather low ph's. They work by emulsion and actually break the soil down and hold it in sollution. Many times the black streakes are actually mold/mildew and the citrus based cleaners work great on this type of organic soil. They are also very good at removing tree sap.