[xkeots]

What products do you use to clean the old grease and oil from a motor and tranny so it can be painted, with them out if the car?
GUNK needs a warm engine. Mine are thickly coated. Is a pressure washer any good?
All suggestions welcome.

Thanks
Jax

[Tim66]

I like to use gas,a putty knife and a good stiff parts cleaning brush, to get heavy stuff. You can power wash too,just cover holes,carb,dist.,etc. Have fun,Tim.

[GT182]

If you can find one to use or rent... a steam pressure washer will work great. It will take everything off... including old paint. Just make sure it's sealed so no water gets inside the engine.

[1969GTO]

Simple Green and a regular pressure washer,smells nice too

[jd66]

kerosene and a pressure washer worked for me. jd grim 66 gto

[1966geeto]

Originally Posted by 1969GTO

Simple Green and a regular pressure washer,smells nice too

Lots of elbow grease.

[gtospieg]

When I used to swap engines at a dealership I used "brakeclean" and then painted them. That stuff left no residue at all and the paint really stuck.

[fyrffytr1]

Scrape as much off as you can with different size blades then use carb and choke or brake parts cleaner to finish up.

[67gtospud]

Carb clean leaves a residue and will cause paint to peel or not stick at all. Carb clean is meant to clean, then lubricate the pivots on a carburetor. Scrape the majority of the grease, then use an engine degreaser, followed by brake clean.

[charles bledsoe]

I've had success with castor oil's purple stuff, for the degreasing step.

[lust4speed]

Brakeklean would be expensive to start off with, but is excellent for the final step to remove any surface contamination. I start off with solvent (kerosene) and a putty knife, solvent and a wire brush, Purple Power and a wire brush, and finally the brakeklean.

I gave up on the steam cleaner when California banned the alkaline based soaps. All that happened was the steam cleaner moved the grease and dirt around from one area to another. The pressure washer worked good, but when I added in the time to clean everything up around the engine (including me), it was faster to not use it.

[Nicks67GTO]

A couple hours of scrubbing with Castrol superclean, followed by brake cleaner, 24 hours drytime, 500* engine primer and Pontiac blue/black turned this grimey 455.....





into this!!...

[Mister Pontiac]

I use mineral spirits. A gallon is pretty inexpensive (about $10) most anywhere, and it does a good job when used along with a good wire brushing and lots of elbow grease.

[merlotgoat]

Same as most others' responses--Remove thick stuff with putty knife, then spray area you're cleaning with WD-40 (or Gunk if you can stand the smell), stiff brushing, a little more WD-40, brush, rinse with brake cleaner. Paint. I've never had engine paint peel when I used this process.

[xkeots]

Thanks, I used a little from each of you. They all are nasty especially when I power washed the crap off and the dots of grease were all over me.
Now I have peeling or peeled paint. I might have to paint strip the rest.

Thanks
Jax

[Sloan66]

Little late to post, but I recently bought a old Chevy p/u. Bought a product from Home Depot called Zep, it is purple in color, it worked great, cleaned the engine and left factory grease markings. Now, if you soak parts it completely strips them , however spraying the stuff on and rinsing did a great job

[xkeots]

Originally Posted by Sloan66

Little late to post, but I recently bought a old Chevy p/u. Bought a product from Home Depot called Zep, it is purple in color, it worked great, cleaned the engine and left factory grease markings. Now, if you soak parts it completely strips them , however spraying the stuff on and rinsing did a great job

Never too late!

Thanks
Jax