Do i dare put this in the dish washer?

[barracuda816]

Methanol is nasty stuff be very careful with it.

On the bright side, antidote for methanol poisoning is Ethanol (regular alchohol)

But as rig pig says, it is nasty so wear rubber gloves and avoid breathing in fumes. methanol is metabolised into formaldehyde, this is not a nice thing to have in your body.

 

[julianf]

Tried caustic, but it was more bother than it was worth.

The dishwasher is currently running....

 

[MrFluffy]

On the bright side, antidote for methanol poisoning is Ethanol (regular alchohol)

But as rig pig says, it is nasty so wear rubber gloves and avoid breathing in fumes. methanol is metabolised into formaldehyde, this is not a nice thing to have in your body.

Its culmalative too as a poison, and leads to blindness and insanity. Theres more safety warnings on the 5l of methanol container that came special courier in a box with its own bund at the bottom, and yet the 50L steel drum of vp high octane petrol next to it came general transit with a sticker stuck on the drum itself. Obviously its more risky to get methanol on your skin than be burnt to death in a petrol fire.

I used to have a workshop dishwasher but I didnt use it enough and space is at a premium so ended up being converted to a small blasting cabinet. It did get relatively unsoiled stuff really nice, but on something like a head or axle off a old tractor or the like with eons of gunge baked on, it wasnt that effective. I do most of my parts cleaning now in a parts cleaner running paraffin as a solvent with a stiff brush and a air blast gun to dry stuff off and remove stubbon bits after blasting it with the steamer outside first to get the worst off and extend the life of my cleaner fluid because Im a cheapskate like that and it really stinks in the parafin heater after its done a year or two in the parts cleaner. If its really really bad, steam to soften a bit then use a pallet knife to wedge off the chunks.

If the dishwasher fails, brush TFR on neat a hour beforehand and go see someone with a steam cleaner. You need the heat to loosen the oil and neat TFR helps with everything except eating sensitive aluminum parts, which it also helps more than you want at times.
If you are going to sandblast, it goes without saying to block every orifice and hole first with something bouncy that wont break (rubber, plasticine etc then tape over), Ive seen some very shiny engines that were sandblasted during the rebuild lunch their freshly rebuilt innards about 30 miles into use for want of a tiny bit of grit somewhere it shouldnt be. Id prefer it to look a bit minging and work properly than have one that has been blasted if that is the only option personally. Doing it properly is more of a pain than using another process in the first place most of the time.