De greasing engines and gear boxes

[winchman]

I need to clean a few bike engines and a very old gear box so what do you recommend apart from the usual bucket of paraffin etc?
I can't risk the dish washer!

 

[Wildefalcon]

Brake cleaner?

 

[winchman]

Brake cleaner?

The gear box is covered in thick hard grease would it do it?

 

[addjunkie]

Vapour blasting

 

[julianf]

No nonsense degreaser. It must have something caustic in it also though as it will cause alloy to look slight dusty on the surface, so watch out for internals or mating faces etc.

 

[mtt.tr]

Zepp is good
Loctite 7840 is exceptional

 

[Joe 90]

I use petrol.

 

[colnerov]

Hi, I use petrol to get the worse off then HG oven cleaner from Tesco on the stained areas, leave for a few minutes, then pressure wash it off.

Colin

Edit: If you've a few to do try this off of Youtube, a bit more hands off -

 

[Porkypine]

I always used petrol, a good way I found was put some in a "paraffin gun" on the compressor and jet it off, best not have anyone with a fag in their mouth nearby tho...

 

[Blobber]

I think ive seen that a tub of TFR is good, not good for your skin so big gloves required

 

[qwakers]

Parrafin or diesel. Far safer than petrol and more effective imho also

 

[maroon]

Degreaser from local car parts stockists. 5l tins. Use that in an air cleaning gun? A red thing from machine mart that's five quid give or take. Do it on a big tray or something (like an oil drum cut in half) reuse what you collect.

 

[Kerelise]

I always used petrol, a good way I found was put some in a "paraffin gun" on the compressor and jet it off, best not have anyone with a fag in their mouth nearby tho...

I use gastronorm trays with petrol. Decant back into a bottle, let it settle so all the crud falls to bottom, carefully pour out to re-use. The dirty dregs get tipped into sawdust, which I burn. Was thinking of trying to distil the dirty petrol so I could separate out the oil / crud to get clean petrol again...

 

[Phillip Goodison]

Bilt hamber surfex, you can dilute it, or use it neat for a better cleaning power

 

[mart]

Is that product still available called Gunk engine cleaner?

 

[frank horton]

I only use screwfix's own...does for me old cars and tractors.......
can be used straight away after power washing.....
usually 3 goes and it's clean.....when really cruddy.....

 

[Porkypine]

Is that product still available called Gunk engine cleaner?

Pretty sure I've seen it very recently, tho whether it's still good, or gone the way of useless EU friendly paint stripper I wouldn’t know

 

[GraemeVW]

May not be of much use to you now, but there is a guy at Newark that sells industial cleaning stuff. His water based degreaser is great! Wear gloves though!! Strips all the oils out your skin and leaves your hands feeling horrible for days otherwise!

 

[graffian]

Is that product still available called Gunk engine cleaner?

I had a free source of Jizer, we used to park over an open drain cover in the yard and brush clean the motor with jizer then hose them down.
Triump heralds were the easiest to do, so that dates it.
Now I would go to a local bike breaker and use his steam cleaner.

 

[brightspark]

hot water power washer using traffic film remover .. will take anything off no matter how thick