Parts Cleaning Solvent - What do you use?

I agree, Safety Kleen blows. we use it at work. Now the old stuff worked much better, and after you got used to the skin peeling off your hands, the parts were clean

 

I like to watch TV while I clean my parts...Nothing like a smoke and a gallon of gasoline to clean up those old car parts.....Kids...don't try this at home!!

 

Yeah, I use a gallon of Gunk mixed with five gallons of kerosene. It seems to eat all the thick **** off, and it dosent gum up the machine.

 

...ATTENTION EVERYBODY..!!!

I was going to make a new and seperate post, but I'm glad this came up...

On Monday this week I visited a friend of mine in the hospital...
He was in the burn unit at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco...

What happened was this...
He was cleaning some motorcycle parts in a sink with a small bowl
of gasoline...(we've all done it in a pinch...) anyway,
he lifted a part up, sprayed some Chemtool on it, put the part back down
and FWOOSH..!!!! Fireball explosion..!!!

He isn't sure what ignited it, whether it was static from his jacket,
a spark from the part hitting metal, or if the fumes got to the water heater,
but he now has 2nd and 3rd degree burns on the back of his hands, and on his face...
luckily he was wearing a heavy jacket that was covering his arms and chest,
but his face got it pretty good... melted his goatee to almost nothing,
melted his eyelashes and eyebrows off,(luckily he was able to close
his eyes super fast and avoided any damage to them..!!)
but his nose, cheeks, and forehead, got blistered up and burnt pretty bad...
He has a perforated pigskin & gauze bandage holding his forehead together right now...
they say he won't be tooo Freddy Krueger-ish after he heals up,
but he will have noticable damage for quite a while...
not to mention the extreme pain he went through and is still dealing with..!!
He said when they got into the house,
he doused himself with cold water in the kitchen sink,
and layers and layers of skin just peeled right off his face...
said it felt like a gooey bunch of honey or snot or something like that...
like it had blistered and popped and peeled all in just a minute or so...
Also super luckily, was the fact that a friend of his was right
there just outside of the garage to put out the fire
and get him to the hospital extra fast-like..!!

I know this sounded kind of gnarly and graphic, but I just wanted
to remind everybody to be extra careful when dealing with such things,
and that stuff like this can happen to ANYBODY..!!


Later... Snacks...

 

saw something similar when my brother spent time in the burn unit for 4th degree [I had no idea] electrical burns.
a fellow washing parts in a tub with gas, someone snaps on a fan, boom. the poor guy hung on in a coma then died after a few days had p***ed. he'd been burned over 95% of his body. the nurses said it was just charred flesh. it was awful.

some folks are lucky cleaning parts with gas, some are not. I think it's the stuff you put in the tank, period.

 

I use mineral spirits, from Lowes, Home depot, whoever has it on sale. Seldom pay more than $1.25 a gallon. The gallon jugs give you containers to dispose of the old solvent too. i also add a bottle of anti-static from the paint store, cuts down on stray sparks.

 

[ QUOTE ]
I know Dr J wont think this is cool, but Wallmart sells spray cans of carb cleaner and engine degreaser for 97 cents each. The carb cleaner works great and at 97 cents a can you can afford to go nuts. Avoid the degreaser though -- the 97 cents would probably be better spent at Taco Bell or something.

[/ QUOTE ]

What have you found at Taco Bell that de-greases?

 

Try their taco sauce on an old penny sometime... kinda makes you wonder.

 

I'll second the Zep recommendation. I dig the stuff. Used it 2 different shops I worked at. And when you buy the 55 Gal drum they gave use these cool aircharged dispensers.

 

And when your ZEP drum goes empty, you have a cool blue and yellow garbage can for your shop

 

I've had okay luck using straight Simple Green, buy the concentrate and don't dillute it. I pour it into a container with a lid and let the parts soak. downside is it is pretty expensive but I reuse it as much as possible and it works okay, not great. You have to have time to let it sit for quite awhile. When I put the F100 brakes on my A I soaked hubs for about a week and they came out looking great! Pretty safe stuff as far as I know...

 

[ QUOTE ]
And when your ZEP drum goes empty, you have a cool blue and yellow garbage can for your shop

[/ QUOTE ]

and you can get it in half barrels as well. I use the 55 to store my used oil in, when I have 2 full a local oil co. comes and pumps it for free.

 

I cleaned my T350 ****** cse with Simple green and a bottle brush and hosed it out on the back lawn, then dries it and put it together. that was almost a decade ago...

One time I thought i would be a good idea to "degrease" some pistons in the dishwasher.
The white plastic insides of the dishwasher were gray for about three years...Weirdest part of it was, Wife just laughed about it!

Happiness is having a wife who subscribes to AutoWeek, for herself!....


Oh, one more thing.... **** WALMART!

 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I know Dr J wont think this is cool, but Wallmart sells spray cans of carb cleaner and engine degreaser for 97 cents each. The carb cleaner works great and at 97 cents a can you can afford to go nuts. Avoid the degreaser though -- the 97 cents would probably be better spent at Taco Bell or something.

[/ QUOTE ]

What have you found at Taco Bell that de-greases?

[/ QUOTE ]


Well, it cleans you out anyway...

(PS- Doc, I hate Wallmart too... but I hate spending more money than necesary even more.)

 

[ QUOTE ]


(PS- Doc, I hate Wallmart too... but I hate spending more money than necesary even more.)



[/ QUOTE ]

Yea, I know I just don't go there because they represent the worst case scenario of corporate greed and the government/gang's refusal to bust monopolies.

Besides,Target (Tar-zjay) and BigKmart are way closer to me.

Do you know what "Omni Consumer-Products" is?

 

We use pink stuff in our parts washer, green stuff is as good, non falmmable and relatively non toxic.
Stoddards is ok but expensive and mineral spirit is the same thing, you could just use kero, or naptha. Watch out for big bangs though if your parts washer doesn't have an explosion proof pump.
One thing to remember is if your cleaning any aluminum for chrome, no solvents.
They wash the oil into the aluminum and it comes out in the tanks.
For really bad parts we mix 50/50 pink stuff and water and simmer them at around 140 degrees F for around 1/2 hour.
Then grim just rinses off.

 

OK, I have not read this post in depth so I apologize if this has been asked but....

I bought one of those Harbor Freight parts washers and did the guy thing and never read the instructions. I ran a petrol based solvent through it and cleaned all the parts on the 235. Then I noticed the pump was going south. It is designed for a "enviro friendly" tree hugging kinda solvent.
Can you buy pumps to replace it that are heavy duty?

BUYER BEWARE

 

Most of those imports come with 2 types of pumps; standard and HD.
The HD is "supposed" to be OK on petrol based solvents and is (again "supposed") to be spark proof.

 

[ QUOTE ]
(PS- Doc, I hate Wallmart too... but I hate spending more money than necesary even more.)

[/ QUOTE ]

well then don't pay your taxes

because you are subsidizing the salary of your local walmart employee because they don't pay them enough to eat so most of them are on foodstamps.

later jim

BTW **** WALMART

edit in- use OIL EATER from costco in your parts cleaner it's water based and works good i'm told.

 

I use carb cleaner and simple green at the house...

Up at the garage theirs a tank of kero and some chemical mixed in to make it non-flamable?

I'll have to double check an see what it is...

 

Root, you can buy a good pump at NAPA for about 40 bucks.

 

Here's the big question......how do you get rid of the old, used fluids? I don't feel right dumping it behind the garage..................

CT.

 

Years ago I made a newbie mistake. I was usuing gunk carb cleaner in the gallon to clean most of my small parts and it worked great. One day at the swap meet I picked up one of those $35 bench top parts cleaners got it home and poured in my parts cleaner. I started cleaning right away. man I thought this was the ****. So the next day I go to do some more parts cleaning, flip the switch and -nothing- "cheap !@#$% imort ****" I opened the top only to find the pump is a big gooey mess. Guess that carb cleaner was a little stronger than I thought. My parts washer became a parts dipping tank after that.
In my "new" parts washer I use mineral spirits now. on really tough stuff I spray it down outside with .99 cents store brake cleaner to soften it up. As far as diposal I tend to mix my used cleaner in with my oils to drop off at the auto parts store. I figure its all petro-based anyway. thats one of the reasons I don't use those Bio-Degradeable cleaners, because once you add grease and oil to the mix they are no longer bio-degradable.

 

Hell I've used diesel fuel in my Harbor Freight parts washer for years, No problems. I also like the Castrol Super Clean stuff, keep it in a spray bottle for all kinds of cleaning.

Later, Mark

 

I am researching the specific cleaner called "Salvasol". It was used in the 1960's, 1970's and early 1980's (possibly earlier). I would like to know the manufacturer and any other details anyone might know.

 

My buddy uses a cheapo electric stove top deep fryer filled with degreaser such as simple green and boils his carbs out in the backyard for an hour. They come out spotless.

 

IT WOULD BE NICE IF WE NEW WHO YOU WERE BEFORE YOU CAME IN HERE TRYING TO FIND INFORMATION FOR YOUR LAWSUIT

 

I dont know anything about salvasol,but since the shyster revived a 3 year old post,I will add my.02 . I saw a post awhile ago about using simple green in a crock pot (sort of like a miniature hot tank) . I wouldnt use the wifes good crock pot that she cooks supper in.

 

I have a "cooker" w/ simple green (poor mans Hot Tank; aka: crock pot) and cook the parts for some time.

I use Mineral spirits in my parts cleaner.

California is gay, they took all the good parts cleaners off the shelf.