Engine case cleaning, what solvents do you use?

G'day guys,

having fun getting greasy today. I read in Mr. Tom Wilson's 'how to rebuild your volkwagen aircooled engine' that magnesium is sensative to certain caustic chemicals etc and care should be taken as to what is used to cleaning the case.

It keeps refering to use a solvent, but would anyone know exactly what this solvent might be? lol. I had one go at getting most of the grease off with dishwashing liquid and elbow grease but its got a long way to go. I wasn't sure if automotive degreaser might be too harsh.

Was thinking about taking it to the car wash at night and using the pressure cleaner, but not sure if i would be game to use their degreaser or cleaning chemicals.

What do you guys rekon?

Thanks in advance!
Christopher.

I recently built a 2054cc motor using my old 1600 case and i just used cheap cans of degreaser. Buy about 5+ cans, spray and let it sit overnight then hose down or take to local car wash. If you're going for show car finish then you'll need that extra elbow grease.

If you just want it clean, dissolve Omo in really hot water and use that with a brush
it cleans everything I clean my resin brushes with this and the come out new

Castrol parts cleaner works really well,purchase from Repco or Bursons,save and reuse.

I use oven cleaner 😂

just did a case I am working on. just used the cheap degreaser. went through alot of tins. then dishwashing liquid and the high pressure hose. came up ok. still need to scrub some areas but mostly clean.

Selleys BBQ Cleaner is a good degreaser
I haven't tried it on an engine though..

but I do use the cheap FOAMING degreaser spray cans

it foams up and does its work in about a minute or so...
You can use a coarse brush to help get any thing that is thick off
then just hose it off... use it on all My car

I even use it on My painted tinware etc...
but wouldn't leave it on for long...lol

Lee

most cleaners these days aren't as bad as a few years ago..
I used some in a plastic sink and it got hot and started to eat into the sink... Yikes..

Haha, seems like quite a few options 🙂.

We got a kick ass laundry powder and it will be the volksie a nice scent too lol. I'll take a trip to the auto store and pickup a carton of parts cleaner. I thought it would be worth asking, the book was saying also that carburettor cleaner on magnesium was a big no no, as well as hot baths etc.

silver wrote:If you just want it clean, dissolve Omo in really hot water and use that with a brush
it cleans everything I clean my resin brushes with this and the come out new

+1 I use washing powder mixed up as a concentrated slurry and that's really good for cleaning alloys of sorts, but don't soke it too long as its caustic and eventually dissolves aluminum and similar soft white metals eg Mg

So I would not leave a case over night in it otherwise, bye bye tolerances.

Phosphoric acid is the best to use after to make the alloy bright and clean and also etches it ready for engine/caliper enamels. ( not recommended to use on an mag open case)

I used the works gurney station to clean my case. Was plumbed with degreaser and came up pretty good but I still had to use a neat degreaser after that to soak for an hour to get the oily residue off.

I used Koala care from Supercheap. It's nowhere near as harsh as proper chemical degreasers but a few applications did the trick.

Also, try Kerosene and then a degreaser after that to remove the kero oily residue 🙂