Hello to the forum. In wanting to keep the build-up of the 455 moving along in some form, at this point I have many parts to clean. Because of space considerations, the place for this phase of the project will have to be in the basement of the house if: Is there some sort of non-toxic chemical/product that will do a decent job of cleaning pistons, rods and all the other bits and pieces found in a 455? Thanks in advance, Howie.

 

Simple green and citrus based degreasers work okay for oil and light grease, but not well for heavy buildups.
The heavy stuff should be wirebrushed off, then the above might work okay.

 

Thanks Rob, and it will be lemony-fresh too! I'll look into this. I'll use the time honored plastic windshield scraper to remove carbon from the pistons, and go from there.

 

The citrus stuff was orange and smelled like, uh, oranges! It damages paint so beware.
Sinple green stinks - has sasafras (or whatever) in it... Okay on paint (that I have seen).

 

You might get by with a concentrated, heavy-duty detergent, like "Oil Eater," or "Fantastik," or "Formula 409," or "Simple Green Purple" and, as Rob said, a selection of brushes - Use brushes and plenty of detergent to make a paste out of grease, then rinse off.

I always go for the petrochemical solvents, myself, but these ought to work okay for you.

In case you want to go for the big guns, I like to do major degreasing with kerosene, then use mineral spirits, lacquer thinner, and/or BrāKleen. Trichloroethylene is the best, but it's hard to get these days.
There's also the kind of parts cleaning fluid used in parts cleaning "sinks" - eats through all kinds of stuff, and barely evaporates.

- Eric

 

Then there are the good solvents in the gallon cans withthe basket inside. Can only do a few at a time but pretty safe to use inside as long as it is covered at all times except adding or removing parts. I use one of these in the garage - pretty handy!

 

I like the purple degreasers for external parts after brushing/scraping off the heavy stuff. Had a plastic oil tank split inside the hull of a SeaDoo once and purple did the trick when citrus and simple green could not cut it. I always use petro solvents for internal parts, probably just personal paranoia of corrosion from the water/detergent options. Basements are rare in my part of the country, can you set up an exhaust fan when cleaning?

 

The safest way? Drop of the entire engine at the machine shop and have them do it... I feel that there is no perfect and safe method of cleaning. They all have drawbacks and varying degrees of toxicity.

For internal engine parts, I'd just stick with the gallon can of carb cleaner.

IMO, Purple and citrus de-greaser are bad stuff, but the cheapest of the non-solvents. Wear gloves and DON"T breath the vapor or spray mist. I can't remember the main ingredient. Inhalation of vapor and mist is bad for you. Read the MSDS and you'll not want to buy it again.

With that said, I fill up a one gallon metal can with parts, top it off with purple power, or citrus cleaner, and stick it in my garage oven at 150 for 10 minutes. Then I put it outside to steam as it cools for a few hours, so I don't breath the vapors. Then I give everything a quick dunk in water to remove the purple power. Then I rinse and scrub and throw the parts back in the oven to dry. They end up with a dry white crust, but otherwise no grease, and very clean. The heat seems to do the trick, otherwise it takes days of soaking.

I've been reading about sonic jewelry cleaners. I hear they work great when using warm citrus or simple green cleaners. I may give this a try, and follow up with a vibratory brass tumbler on non-internal parts.

FWIW, you can buy 1/2 gallon of orange citrus cleaner at the dollar stores. 1 gallon of purple power is about $6 and simple green is about $10.

 

Citric acid. You will probably have to order it online. A friend of mine is rebuilding a carb for me that was very nasty and rusty. He showed me the before and after pictures and I could not believe it. The parts looked brand new. I have not tried it but he is somebody I trust 100%.

 

As MX442 mentioned ultrasonic cleaning is the best by far however they are very expensive. There are two different frequency ultrasonic cleaners the lower frequency is the one you want somewhere around 27 kHZ the higher 42 kHZ is for jewelry. You can get cheep one at harbor freight but they are for jewelry so it will take longer and you may not get them fully cleaned. You must use a solution that has a rust inhibitor this is available you just mix water with some chemicals. Ultrasonic cleaners are used by engine builders every part gets cleaned in one just prior to installation. Dental offices use them to clean many different items.

 

Greased Lightning has always worked well for me.

 

Thanks for the information about the ultrasonic cleaners, Chuck - I hadn't known that about the different frequencies.

- Eric

 

In my searches, these are failing after a few months!

I've been looking at reloading supply houses. Actually, Cabellas has good prices on tumblers and sonic cleaners. Since they have a store local to me, I've been meaning to go look at them.

 

To all who have helped on this I give my heartfelt thanks for all these tips! The block is going to the machine shop to be dealt with, period, no questions asked, it is to wily and awkward to want to bring it through the house???!!! Many homes do have basements around here, the water table is far down enough to allow it, is my figuring why. The solvent buckets, heat, sonic treatments and using the mentioned citrus products will be on my radar. Spring will be here soon I hope, so this will then allow me to 'move' the cleaning of the smaller parts safely outdoors, increasing my options even further. The 455 project, due to concentrating on tidying up the car a little more in the looks department, and not having a wallet that can take both at this time, is being pushed back a little for now, save for getting the block cleaned/cam bearings/frost plugs/honed. Into a sealed bag it will go once this is done! Regardless, the smaller parts have to be addressed.... Howie!

 

Spray Gunk engine cleaner always worked for me - let it sit, brush it, and hose it off with water!

 

I've used Chevron "325" solvent.... Used to use it in my parents basement
with a big ole gas furnace...
It is not flammable and it is not toxic and you don't need gloves to handle the parts. It does dry out your hands, but is not harmful at all.
Downside it is about $10 a gallon and comes in 5 gallon metal containers from any Chevron distributor.. Just about all major oil company distributors have a cleaning solvent available. Bill

 

You sure about that!

AKA stoddard solvent.
Contains Naptha, mineral spirits, xylenes, and benzyne.

Yes, this is a common parts cleaning solvent. But saying that it is not flammable, not toxic, and you don't need gloves is bad information!

 

Yes I overstated it being non toxic... What I should have said is that
the fumes aren't overwhelming like gasoline or the like....

 

On the same subject what are you guys using in your parts cleaner wash pump bins. I have always used the 5gal parts solvent (mineral spirts) that Northern Tool sells but they have been out of it for 2 months now. I am starting to think they will never get it again. Manager just keeps telling me its coming.

 

I have a parts washer that i bought from Harbor Frieght Tools and i use Mineral Spirits and after that i wash it off with brake cleaner.

 

In California(where else) you no longer can get regular paint solvent or mineral spirits. They do have a replacement that is of all things mostly water baseI now use naptha, for some reason it isn't effected by the VOC laws........Tedd

 

When finished the leftover solvents make for a great weed killer.

 

Depending on the level of understanding of your better half (if present), the dishwasher, with Castrol Superclean, would do pretty well.

Gerry