Need Advice On Crud Cleanup

[PineRidge]

Need some advice on the best way to loosen crud, grease, and tar accumulation on a tractor engine. I need to clean it up for resale purposes. I have heard some say to spray it with diesel fuel and before I do so I want to be sure that it will not affect the engine paint as well. I do own a 2500 psi cold water pressure washer but I need a way to first loosen the 5 years worth of buildup before it blast it. Cold water by itself won't touch it. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[chim]

Get some Castrol Super Clean. It has been great on everything I tried it on. I keep it one of those pump bottle sprayers. A good soaking and some brushing with assorted brushes gets rid of the crud. It's cheap - around 5 bucks a gallon at K-Mart.....................chim

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Be careful using Super Clean, it is so powerful it can take the paint off too. Diesel works, WD40 can loosen grime too.

 

[Junkman]

Get a garden sprayer and mix up a solution of liquid dish washing liquid and put in a cap full of sudsy ammonia for each 1/2 gallon of water. Mix well and spray the entire engine and surrounding areas. Let it soak in well and spray the heavy accumulation areas well. If possible, remove the heavy crud with a paint mixing stick before spraying. The less it has to penetrate, the better it will work. Hit it with the power washer and it will clean up well. Try to keep away from the distributor if it is a gas engine. If you have a compressor, blow dry. This is how I have cleaned many old car engines with good success.... and the nice part is that it doesn't hurt the paint. A pressure washer will clean off the crud with out any other help, but it will leave it with a oil film.

 

[jinman]

Diesel will not hurt your paint. It's an old used car dealer's trick to put diesel on cars with dull paint to make them look shiny. I'd use the diesel to cut most of the grease and grime and then use something like a 50-50 solution of Superclean to get the last residue off. With Superclean, put it on, brush it, and rinse it off right away. If it stays on your paint for much more than a couple of minutes it will do nasty things. It works great, but it needs to be rinsed off pretty quickly.

By the way, don't forget that diesel is flammable. It's not as bad as gasoline, but you still need to use caution. Don't use it on a hot tractor and keep a hose and fire extinguisher handy.

 

[JerryG]

When I worked at a tractor dealership we always pressure steamed the crud out of them. If I was going to do a really bad one at home, I would soak it down with Simple Green and them power wash it. BTW one more thing, when you power wash it, do it with the engine cold. Cold water is hard on a hot injector pump.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've found that brake cleaner works well on everything from guns to engines. Simple to use, no smells and beutiful results.

 

[Junkman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I've found that brake cleaner works well on everything from guns to engines. Simple to use, no smells and beutiful results. )</font>

and it is one of the best paint removers know to modern man!!!!

 

[DKinWA]

I'd just rent a steam cleaner for part of a day and use their recommended cleaning detergent. It does cost a little, but you could use it to clean the whole tractor and have it looking pretty good in a couple of hours.

 

[Richard]

When I tore into the front end of my backhoe to clean up the oil leak I had, the dude at the store sold me some "Purple stuff' or "purple cleaner" as I think it was called.

I was very impressed with what it would do. I cleaned up the thick gunk with a putty knife. On the loader arms where I had accumulation of "oil blowby" (this was hydraulic oil) I would spray this purple stuff on it and just watch the oily mess melt away.

Never used the green stuff, nor others mentioned, but I did have excellent results with that purple stuff.

Richard