I hand dried the engine after the pressure wash to make sure all the gunk was gone, as I painted the block. but I'd say 90% of the cleaning came from the oil eater stuff i linked, and the pressure washer.

After that pic I used engine gunk, the spray foam stuff to get the last bits off. I painted it last night I'll wipe down the painted surface tonight to make sure all the paint is cured to the block.

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On its own website, Simple Green acknowledges that using their product on aluminum can be problematic.

What we are all on about is that caustic soda will eat aluminum quickly. It reacts very fast. Many of these products are based on caustic as a cleaner. If you were to have a puddle of caustic on say a thermostat housing, it could easily eat a hole in it. In minutes not days.
Tango has good advice in that if a product manufacturer warns against using the product in certain applications you would be foolish to ignore their warning.

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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

I've used foaming GUNK, other aerosol solvent-based cleaners and have been unhappy. I have had better results from Simple Green MAX (or is it EXTREME?) in a pump bottle, was available at autozoo but not any more.

Yes, the bottle says to not leave it on aluminum. It will clean it, does not damage it in normal use, but leaving it on would probably etch the surface. It is not a strong caustic. I would NOT use it on bright anodized aluminum, likely it will leave a whiteish stain like permanent water-spots. RINSE WELL.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Caustic will eat anodizing,it is the process used to remove it from aluminum.

Tainted alloy will come up like new with applications of say oven cleaner /limescale removers that contain caustic.

I use it to clean alloy parts on our 05 Kawasaki dirt bike,the rads respond well to a few minutes of soaking after being sprayed with these products as do levers and the main crankcases.

Now alloy such as the clutch cover are different as in the product has to be evenly worked over with say a scotchbrite pad or an old toothbrush ,this is because the alloy is a different grade to the other alloy on the bike,so using this principle you can just spray items on an engine such as a water pump or engine mountings and leave to soak and then rinse but the rocker cover will suffer streaks unless the caustic product is worked in evenly.

One good use of caustic based cleaners ie these being most kitchen/bathroom products is that they also remove rust and they do it very well.

Below is a picture of the bike I use the products on,you can see the results of using caustic,this picture was taken about a fortnight after caustic products were last used and the rust has reappeared on the brake lever tip.Notice how clean the carb has come up .

What to do?

Got simple green & it seemd to be pretty safe at least it doesn't eat rubber & plastic parts as does a oil base type orange degreaser.
Oven cleaner


What about top manifold & fuel injector area

Gosh like to spruce up a 27 year old engine but afraid to end up with problems.

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83 500 SEC Euro 198K

I agree! I like to use a garden sprayer filled with really hot water. I pump it up and can pinpoint the spray exactly where I need it and the hot water really helps remove the crud. I sometimes use "Dawn" dishwashing liquid as a presoak and use a parts brush to physically agitate the heavy grease areas and let it penetrate for an hour and then spray off. You can use your compressor to blow away residual water and voila, clean engine! Pressure washers down low (below IP) work well too - good luck!