Gas can be very dangerous! I would not even think about it unless you want a fire on your hands!!!!!!!!! I do this type of work everyday. We use mineral spirits in a solvent tank. Brake cleaner on a bench. Or a large cleaning machine with trans-brite powdered soap with water. Basically a large dishwasher. As mentioned above there are some good methods for the DIY guy's. Just make sure to be safe while doing it. I use scotch bright pads and wire brushes for baked on stuff. Works well to get the job done. Just have to scrub some. HTH Vince

 

Very dangerous especially in a garage!!!

We tried it in a parts cleaner and it didn't clean any better then any other chemicals. Degreasers worked the best especially if you warm them up a little. Hence why I used the local coin car wash with heat and pressure.

Pre soak before pressure washing with degreaser and use a nylon for most stuff and a wire brush for caked on stuff. Some stuff I use a green scotch brite like the one to clean pots and pans just make sure you never take it back in the house... I usually toss them right away and get another.

I am no expert and have never had access to a serious parts cleaner so this has been my DIY alternative.

 

Might I add for those of you with girly hands you might want to wear some heavy rubber gloves when using mineral spirits or other chemicals!

 

everything except soft parts

The car washes around here don't allow that. I'm guessing Orange County has more strict guidelines in regards to water runoff so the car washes there must have btter filtration. Out here they might not have any filtration for the drains/runoff cause it states You will be pusnished by law.

how did that work in comparison to brake cleaner or whatever else youv;e used
I'm not sure where you are getting your brake cleanerbut I pay at least 3.00 for it on sale. I like to clean the cra ut of my parts too so I go through a lot of it.
how'd that work in comparison to other cleaners youv'e used?

+1

I like the dishwasher idea. I do not recall which product it was but one of them turned the valve body grey as Joseph mentioned above. I don't hink it was the soap but I can't rule it out because it wasin the sink when it changed color. I did let the gunk soak on it though. I would have to guess it was probably the gunk that turned it grey though.

 

I did use the gas and it did work pretty damn good. I do agree it is very dangerous to work with and I do not recommend anybody use it for the reason I used it. Plus I probably lost more brain cells that I didn't really have to spare

Geez you don't call, you don't come over to see if I caught myself on fire! :jest
Yeah I believe after all the methods I tried pressure washing is the way to go to get the really caked on **** off. I made friends with a local transmission parts distributor and I used his industrial parts washer. I ran the parts for 2 cycles. it did clean the parts pretty damn good. Then i put the parts in his solvent tank. That was niiice. I wish I had one dammit.

After cleaning parts for a few hours in the gas, the crapload of cuts on my hands soaked up the gas giving me a nice warm tingling sensation which was much more soothing and liberating than the initial burn.

 

oh brother.... what a way to learn...

See your best bet was to make friends with a local guy. Make sure you help him in some way or another so you remain on his good side...

My understanding is that state law mandates the run off from car washes be treated before going down a drain. There supposed to have grease traps and what is a essentially a settling weir to catch heavy sediment.

Any run off is to be treated like waist and is supposed to go to a treatment plant to ensure the soap and other run off does not make it in to environment even if it is biodegradable. The soap may break down but the oils from the road way will not break down and they want to make sure its not being dumped into the ocean or streams were it could effecting the ECO system.

Now the people running the car washes will tell you other wise because they don't want you to make a mess in the stall. The also don't want to have to clean the traps any sooner then they have too. I talked to the guy the services the car wash in my neighbor hood and he says about every 6 months he has to call a pump truck to clean the traps. If not the water doesn't drain and the stalls fill up. When they do back up the run off goes into the parking lot and ends up in the gutter. The city frowns upon that because there is no control over gutters, it goes straight to the ocean.

Also they try to reclaim the water at these Faculty's. Could you imagine water usage if they did not reclaim as much water as possible???


If you look around those self serve facilities you should see some large metal covers. There is usually 4 of them... Those are the settling weires were they catch the heavy sediment and reclaim water from... That's were the pumper comes in and extracts the waist from. The water system is a closed loop system. When it runs low it gets water from the city that usually goes through a softener or a deionizer to remove heavy metals before being going into the systems holding tank. The large office in the center of these facilities is were the closed loop water system sits. There is usually 1 large tank that feeds several small tanks that have a pressure washer pump attached to it that pumps it out to the hose in the stall.

 

We pay 1.50 for it a can at the shop...:p got them hook ups