Technical What dissolves “coked” oil on aluminum?

Without affecting the aluminum?

Gotta be a few chemical Engineers on the HAMB

Thanks.

 

Lacquer thinner?

 

Dissolve the aluminum off the oil, that will be easier.

I've had good luck with simple green, my parts washer, scrubbing, and patience.

 

I misread and thought you had cookies instead of coke. I gave that junk up years ago. I’ll just go away now.

 

I tried lacquer thinner to get some coked gear oil off my mufflers, it didn't touch it.

 

Once you get all of the oil off and are just stuck with the coke, soda blasting, it does pretty good at removing the staining. Has to be clean (no oil or grease) and dry. If it's something that doesn't have oil, air, fuel or water going through it, I'll use glass bead.
Ultrasonic cleaner with boiling water and Mean Green, sometimes followed by ScotchBrite and Dawn for good measure.
Soak in gasoline, foamy MeanGreen out of the pressure washer and a pressure washer rinse, usually also followed by ScotchBrite and Dawn for good measure.
I have yet to find a "Golden Bullet". What are you cleaning ? Really cooked on black shit is a bugger, I sometimes end up painting things like trans cases. It's the combination of corrosion filled with baked oil, they still look like leprocy, even after you clean them. Mike

 

I've had good luck with easy off oven cleaner but I have always did a test spot before saturating the part, warning- use in a well ventilated area, that stuff will take your breath. HRP

 

I’ve read you need to make sure the oven cleaner is safe for aluminum.

 

Abrasives.. and a Dremil..

 

Back in the day I was overhauling a number of 727 transmissions from state of Illinois police cars (Dodges). They would burn them up by idleing for hours with the engine at fast idle (to run the AC) and the transmission in park. On a Torqueflite the cooler circuit does not operate in the park position. There was a sticker on the dash that said to put the transmission in neutral for extended idle. The inside of the cases were stained badly by the cooked trans fluid. The whole inside of the case was a light brown color. I never found anything that would take that out of the case. I'd clean the case well with mineral spirits and put the transmission back together. The burned oil staining never caused a problem.

 

Is there a transmission rebuilding place near you that might clean something for you? They seem to be able to make transmissions look new again.

 

I've used Super Clean to remove the baked in oil on crankshafts and like, scrub, and good rinse and they are back like cast. On aluminum, its' tricky because it can etch it, if left too long. Try a spot.

 

Two words, glass beads. Use on about 60 psi.

 

I've had good luck using paint remover to clean it off. Doesn't harm aluminum.

 

I have an old dishwasher that I hook up to the hot water in the sink in the house garage and put an extension cord on to plug in the wall. Drag it out to the Driveway, turn on the hot water, put the intake in the dishwasher with some simple green and high efficiency (no suds) laundry soap, then turn it on heavy duty and walk away. You'd be amazed what that takes off. I wash all kinds of parts in it that way. I use the laundry soap because it seems to do a better job breaking down the oils. On aluminum parts I will run it one more time after its clean enough, with just water to make sure I get it all rinsed good.

 

There's no 'good' method for removing staining from aluminum that I've found unless it's polished. Media blasting is probably the best way to remove staining without altering the finish too much, oven cleaner is generally too aggressive and can end up looking worse if you're not careful. Scotchbrite or wire wheels will be obvious where used. Paint remover can work, but one I haven't seen mentioned is wheel cleaner spray. A chemical process like oven cleaner but less aggressive. I've had decent success with it on carbs and whatnot.

The dishwasher thing works pretty well also, but don't let SWMBO catch you using the one in the kitchen. It will leave an odor behind, run it again empty once or twice to cover your tracks... LOL

 

Ha!! that's how this dishwasher became the old one! Me and Dad used the one in the house, and well it was so bad after with the oil smell we just went to Lowes and got a new one while mom was still gone visiting her sister in Texas! surprise Mom! new dishwasher!

 

I'll throw one more bit of info out here... If your contemplating powder coating any used aluminum part that had any corrosion or fluid exposure, particularly cast, pre-bake it after the initial cleaning but before coating at least once to boil any remainder out. The part may need this several times, failure to do this will cause 'pops' in the finish during the cure process.

 

I also have not found a way to clean aluminum fully without affecting the original surface.
Between wheels, intakes, trans cases and pistons, each will have a different finish, tolerance, and contaminant.
One guy who does high end muscle mopar restorations got a trans case to look like new, saying it was a process and something he developed, but was mum about how it was done. The efforts he went to to get each part to as-assembled was spare no expense or effort. His work was top quality, but his online discussions were polarizing to say the least.

 

The Best I have seen aluminum cleaned was when it was soaked in the "cold tank" at K&U Auto parts machine shop in Sunnyside WA. My buddy hauled some pretty nasty looking pieced down there that came back looking new. I have no idea of what they use but it works pretty well.

 

I'm also in the glass bead camp. Of course, since I haven't had anything but glass bead in my blasting cabinet for years everything looks like it would be best to use glass bead as the blasting media. It's on the order of "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail".

Lynn

 

This . I worked in a transmission shop for years , we used a ZEP product it was an orange granular soap

In our hotsy hot parts washer 30-45 minutes going around in steaming hot pressurized water .

no matter how dirty and caked on the transmission cases would come out in “ as new cast” condition .

Used to call it “Blond” aluminum.

 

Most HAMB "chemical engineers" are limited to mixing Gasoline with Air [and using a sparkplug as a catalyst for an exothermic reaction]

Try a mixture of White Spirits and Patience on your aluminium

 

Dry Ice Blasting! I have no first hand knowledge of how expensive it may be or how hard it may be to find someone who does it. However I have read articles about it being used to clean used turbine engine components like new, removing paint from aircraft without damage and even removing undercoating for car restorations. One of the benefits is it is very clean with the rice sized dry ice pellets evaporating. Your milage may vary.

 

I use Coca Cola on my driveway to get rid of the stains. I was thinking of soaking aluminium bits in it to see what happens. Anything is better than drinking it.

 

Heat it up with a heat gun , acetone on Harley junk

 

Has anyone tried Gunk engine degreaser? I have removed baked on crap from engine blocks by Spraying the crap with Gunk and putting a damp rag over it to keep it from drying out and scrubbing it with a brush now and then to keep it active. Don't let it dry out or you'll have a bigger mess. On large areas I saturate the rag with Gunk and heavily spray the offending crap. Cover that with another damp (not wet) rag and seal the area with a plastic piece of Saran Wrap or garbage bag to prevent evaporation. Be patient and let it soak. Every now and then, peel back the covering and scrub it good or if it is soft enough, scrape what you can off with a plastic scraper if appearance is a factor. Spay a little more Gunk on it a seal it back up. Repeat is needed. Worth a try, anyway. It works for me. A word of caution about using a powerful caustic chemical like Lye, some oven cleaners, drain cleaners, etc. on aluminum. It can violently react and cause serious burns to skin and cause blindness if it gets in your eyes. It can also etch and stain the aluminum and make for ugliness.

 

I ve had pretty good luck with the wheel and grill cleaner mentioned above, and a pressure washer. That stuff is a mild acid.
Oven cleaner, Lye, caustic cleaner like they used to use in the machine shops of the 60's and 70's, are on the other end of the PH scale.
Ive seen the dry ice blasting used on conveyor chains in a factory, but it wasnt aluminum and it wasnt cheap. Your best bet for that would be to have something slid in the back door and done as "government work" or "cumshaw" for all you military types.
I used to tig cracked powerglide cases for my neighbor and I would use Isopropyl alcohol and a rosebud, alternating scrubbing with a stainless steel wire brush and heating. Almost always the oil would seep back into the puddle and contaminate the weld, requiring grinding it out and doing it over.
I only did that for him as a favor, no way most people would be willing to pay for the time to do it right.
Good Luck

 

Coke Cola contains citric acid. Citric acid will etch aluminum at higher concentrations don’t know if amount contained in a Coke will etch the aluminum or not.

 

Mean green in the ultrasonic set at 60° C is what I do for carbs. Sometimes run em a few times but they always come out looking new! With the cast bases it even seems to remove the rust! Very impressive setup, just did around 20 holley 94s in a cpl days. Wouldnt work as well for heads unless you buy the massive one