I have two motors in my garage that I would like to clean and tear down and store. What is the best way to clean them off? I don't want to go out and buy ten cans of de-greaser (unless that's the most recommended way...) if I don't have to. Are there any common solvents that I can get at say Walmart or something that will work good in removing 10+ years of grime from a motor relatively easily?

I have no personal experience with it but I've heard oven cleaner works well.

Might be as expensive as engine degreaser though.

 

 

I had to do this exact thing to a 401 Buick GS motor and I threw it in the back of the truck (pallet w/fork truck, not quite threw) and took it to a car wash.

 

 

Jay

You can get 5 gallons of el cheapo enviro freindly stuff at AutoZone or similar, it's not really the greatest but its cheap enough, a gallon should do you for a few engines. The best I've used thou has been Gunk, it really hits the spot, but it's expensive as you say. Easy Off oven cleaner ( get the squirt kind, not the aresol, does wonders and it goes a long way. rinse it fairly quickly since it attacks the aluminum and don't get it on mating surfaces (or paint for that matter ).

 

That cheap degreaser through an engine cleaning wand is really nasty, you'll be breathing suds if your not careful, and it makes it hard to breathe. Enviromentally freindly does not equal human friendly :|

I've had good luck with Simple Green. Buy it at Wal-Mart for the best price.

 

Bill

the cheapest one for me is:eek: regural gasoline & a paintbrush, works fine for me,.......

good luck,

 

konrad

Better than Simple green (but alot tougher on your skin) is this cheap purple stuff I found called Purple Power. It's only $4/gallon. I used that with some scrub brushes to do this:

<img src="http://www.fortunecity.com/silverstone/subaru/1/USMB/naked02.JPG" style="border:0;"/>

Awesome OH Noah! I remember that pic from a few months ago...Purple Power here I come!

I got my Purple Power from Advance Auto, but it's supposed to be available through Pep Boys and WalMart too.

 

I can't stress enough the importance of wearing rubber gloves when using it full strength. You'll think it's not that strong, but after 15 minutes of cleaning, all oils will have been sucked out of your skin. Also try not to use it on plastic/rubber parts for this same reason.

Do you have any Dollar Store or Dollar Saver stores near you? They sell this stuff called Mean Green that I use all the time. It's really strong and really cheap. I bought a 40 oz squirt bottle the other night for $2.00, and a one gallon refill for $3.00. It's the best stuff I've found for engine cleaning. It's supposed to be a general purpose cleaner, but it's got some serious horsepower!

you can get purple power at NAPA too. NAPA also has this ALuminium wheel cleaner, it doesnt eat up the AL, after you get the gunk build up off, use it on the engine externals...it will make it look BRAND NEW. The stuff is in gallon form, plain while bottle with blue text. Royal someting...

is there some sort of paint you could put on the exterior of the engine to make it resistant to dirt/grime/oil?

<span style="text-decoration:underline">Any</span> paint makes an engine more resistant to dirt/oil/etc.. Since aluminum is a fairly porus metal, oil and grease really like to stick to it, and the paint fills those pores and makes it more "solid", so to speak. Since our engines are fairly low temp, you can even use regular rustoleum on the block without problems. I have a thing against painting heads, but you can, maybe use a little higher temperature engine paint for that thou.

 

For painting, I ususally clean the block up first and then sandbalst the painting surfaces, I've always had good luck with that method. Purple powr is the el chealpo stuff i was talking about at AuotZone! I couldn't remeber the name. Lungs beware

Oh man the only thing that didnt come off was the orange paint on the oil filter. Too bad it didnt turn white (Purolator).

 

Just kiddin around!

Actually, that oil filter was just acting as a place-holder to keep stuff out of the oil pump. The Purple Power did remove some of the rubber grip material from it though!! It was not replaced with a Fram filter.

Welp - I got a half gallon of Simple Green from Walmart yesterday - I'll let you know how it goes. I think it was $5.79 for the 2 Liters.

 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!