School me on engine degreasers

[StuP]

A few months ago a dealer did a free oil change on my car and fouled it up by nipping an o-ring. That resulted in oil spraying all the way from the front of the engine, back over the manifold and everywhere else a qt of oil can go. Pretty squeaky clean before that.

So, I took my car in for a some work and they're now telling me the valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket and, would you believe it, the crank oil seal are all leaking.

I'm not saying they're wrong, but all must have failed in quick succession, or most of it is the left over results of the previous oil leak.

Next step, get rid of all the oil and staining still floating about and run it for a bit to see what's going on.

Needs to be safe for plastics etc, low pressure wash off, I've been warned that there's some electrics hanging around that get very upset if they're pressure washed and reasonably non toxic.

So, what's your favorite degreaser to use on an engine to get rid of oil and grime ?

 

[Kahrnut]

www.advanceautoparts.com/ ; Part # EBGEL; use code 'J81' for 15% off O/L order

 

[Blue bio balls]

Purple up

 

[jeep78]

Mean Green, Purple Power, or similar.

When I painted my tractor I used a gallon of this type cleaner and a paint brush for rubbing. Several spray and soaks and a simple water hose rinse and all oil and grease was gone.

You need to put plastic bags on elect stuff, like the alternator.

 

[Fear Itself]

Spray 9

 

[jeep78]

I bought my degreaser at Dollar General. They have the best prices on that stuff I could find.

 

[rockyfatcat]

It kinda depends on how clean and how much work that you want to do.

I just spent the day cleaning the right wing (flaps and slats) on a commercial aircraft. We are talking about big gobs of thick grease and dirt.

I could list all the different chemicals that we use. But for a car motor, liquid dish soap, a variety of brushes, (paint brushes, toothbrushs and kitchen cleaning brushes) and some soapy water in a spray bottle.

Scrub (the key is the brushing and pushing the dirt around with lots of soap) everything down and leave the soap on thick. Where you have gobs of grease and dirt scrub and spray it out with soapy water and scrub it some more.

When you think that you are done, blast all the soap off and look at what’s left.

 

[Tony2X]

AND....

 

[pavogrande]

Gunk was the cleaner of choice on USN aircraft and my vehicles for many years --

 

[roundhouse]

After you get it clean the best way to find the leaks is to use the ultraviolet dye and a black light