Engine grime cleaning products

I can't be arsed cleaning the bikes at the best of times. But I've not
touched them over the last couple of months while doing my bathroom.
The winter road grime appears to have welded onto the engine.

Any suggestions for a good cleaning product? I've tried cleaning
gel/wax, chrome cleaner, some AutoGlym Bike grime/salt cleaning thingie,
mountain bike Muck Off. I'd thought that using some Scottoiler FS365
would have given me a sporting chance, but I guess it's no use if left
in the bottle for a couple of months

Tim B

 

Start by stippling the heavy deposits with parafin and a stiff paint brush.
Blat off with a pressure washer, repeat as required.
For lighter deposits spray with neat Traffic Film Remover, leave for a
cup of tea, blat it off with a pressure washer.

CAUTION - some varieties of TFR are rather caustic and should not be
allowed to touch aluminium. Test a tiny inconspicuous spot first.

 

Gunk or Jizer or similar.

 

Is it just me or are all the latest environment friendly /
bio-degradable cleaners not a patch on the old full fat stuff?

You could spray some Gunk on some real dirt / crap / grease and it
would nearly just all fall off, now you need several applications and
plenty of brushing and it still isn't quite as clean?

You can tell if something is good as it melts yer gloves. ;-)

I recently bought one of those bench top cleaning tanks from Machine
Mart and so far have only used the cleaner they supply to go with it.
I tried cleaning some of our daughters chainsaw parts and it didn't
touch any of the real hardened oil / grease at all (like Muck Off on
my cycle chain). I'll try some Gunk in there and hope the pump doesn't
mind it?

I wonder how many hours I spent with my head over a bowl of 4* petrol
as a kid, cleaning all sorts of stuff?

T i m

 

I'd forgotten about that! Luckily my back yard is concrete and has
seen the good de-greasing of numerous motorbikes over the years and
the kit car (donor parts) when we built it. If a gallon of Gunk was a
fiver 20 years ago is it still as cheap at nearly £20 / 5L now I
wonder?

On a road bike, for things like main stands and engine webs to become
solid with crud, is it likely they have never been cleaned out from
new? When I get a new (to me) bike I often flush out 1/2 hundredweight
of mud from the things (but they are generally just runabouts).

T i m

 

Also, if you have a tarmac drive it will make a right fucking mess of
it.

 

If they're rideable, bimble to a car valetter hand him the cost of a pint
and let him blast the engine with a steam cleaner. 2 minutes, no rinsing, no
drying, just clean engine cases.

It's the only way.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Darsy'll fix it.

 

Would that be liable to take old, flaky, paint off, too?

Sounds promising.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CB1300SA-9/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..99843../..00312.../..32117.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR Clues: 00 Pts:0000 Miles:0000

 

I find my biodiesel will eat grease quite well, actually.

 

I know it sounds like it's obvious but once turned into a fuel, is it
'safe' to introduce back in/on-to the ecosystem in anything other than
small quantities?

If I'm doing small stuff in the workshop I still like to use some
paraffin as it also does seem to actually melt grease. Left in the
cleaning tank for a while the clean stuff can be siphoned off to work
another day (cos it's not cheap).

T i m

 

It's quite degradable. In fact, one of its myriad uses is a contact
weedkiller.

 

It's only the engine that's suffering, maybe a quick steam clean might
help. I was always under the impression that a steam clean was just a
good way to get moisture in places it generally shouldn't be. Bit of a
pain that fenders don't look quite so good if they're long enough to be
functional.

So of the products suggested sound pretty industrial. I've got some
meths in the garage, might see if that is similar to paraffin before
going for the more industrial stuff.

Tim B

 

Just DONT.
Meths is even more dangerous than petrol.
Parafin is cheap enough, get a 4 litre plastic can from your local
hardware store.