Cleaning the insides of the engine/case

[~Wittes-End~]

Hello

I got the itch to get the inside of my diesel engine clean. It was really sooty and had some sludge. I got into it a little too quickly maybe. I didnt do any research. I see everyone seems to be using soap water, pressure washers, etc. I grabbed a can of engine degreaser I had on the shelf and sprayed away. It got it clean but it seems like the casting absorbed the stuff. I put some kerosene in a pump up sprayer and sprayed averything down inside really good. Im still getting alot of soot out of it. Does anyone think the engine degreaser could damage the castings? The machined finishes seem like they got a little dull too. Im wondering if the engine cleaner etched the surfaces. Im going to get some oil in it real quick here.

[Beavisz]

Use Heavy duty Easy Off oven cleaner in the yellow can. no other brand.
2nd best way next to hot tank and much cheaper.
you're not going to hurt gasket surfaces, I usually scotch bright ruff them anyways.

[Beavisz]

The above is assuming you have the engine torn down ?
If youre trying to flush as assembled engine disregard the aformentioned post.

[John G. Simpson]

-End.
spraying kero or diesel will loosen things up, water will get it out. soap and water will get it clean, rinse it (hot if possible)
, and when dry coat with diesel.
john

[~Wittes-End~]

Great thanks for the info. I was just mainly concerned about having sprayed the engine cleaner inside the engine. I have no idea what engine cleaner is made from, the can didnt say. I hope it's not sodium hydroxide, because that stuff is caustic and I know that is bad for castings.

[KeithW]

Several of the oven cleaners are Lye based. Thus the nasty fumes and rubber gloves. Eats the h@ll out of aluminum. I would think that good bath in vinager would nutralize any left over. Follow that with lots of hot water. I'm partial to my pressure washer and installed a hot water faucet outside where I usually use it.

keithw

[John W]

As a rule, an engine cleaner's prime ingredient is kerosene. It has some other ingredients to retard evaporation and increase the surfactant rates when sprayed. The haze you see is just the chemicals that have dried. Hot water will clean this off. Do not forget to coat ot with some kind of oil to prevent rusting. This is probably more than you wanted to know about degreasers, but I thought I would pass it along.

[J Tiers]

I have cleaned an awful lot of iron with the "purple cleaner" type degreasers. It turns oils and grease and that baked on varnish to soap, and that washes away with water.

Yes, they contain lye. No it is not bad for iron. Old formulas for cutting fluid include some in order to prevent rust. The basid PH tends to inhibit rusting.

It IS bad for aluminum.

And, it will get stuff so clean that it will rust AFTER cleaning, I usually dry off and oil (or primer paint) the parts as soon as possible.

I would NOT do it without disassembling. If cleaning in-place use kerosene or diesel.