35 year old cosmoline how to remove?
 

This stuff is like baked on snot! Cooking for 35 years under the hood, what gets this poo off?

Any suggestions?

Thanks

35 year old solvent ?

what exactly is it ON ?
why was it put on ?

Soak in kerosene or diesel. Didn't get that way in a day, likely not going to be undone in a day.

I agree, what's it on?

Ammonia works also.

Eastwoods "undergone"

When these cars were originally imported to the US Cosmoline was put all over everything the engine compartment before they were put on the ship. Apparently the dealer did not remove it prior to delivery to the first purchaser.

So I have 35 year old cosmoline in my engine compartment.

I'll find some Eastwoods "Undergone" and give it a shot. I think I'll try some 3M adhesive remover as well, I tried the obvious first since the stuff had been there so long but the citrus based solvent and simple green did nothing. I hit it with a pressure washer thinking maybe this junk is so old it'll just pressure wash off, but very little luck with that plan. I does come off with mild rubbing compound but that would take most of my life to do.

Steam cleaner?
 

Find someplace that has a steam cleaner. Seems like that would work.

Why not leave it? It's protected it from corrosion all these years so must be good stuff.

How thick is the coating you are dealing with ?
Is it on something that got really hot like the exhaust manifold ?

If you can find Actual Trisodium Phosphate... have to watch because some boxes say ' TSP' but no longer have that inside them...
make a paste with that and leave it on the area... then use hot water under pressure if you have it to wash it off... clean all the area since leaving it on paint might be bad...

I had remains of it on my cars intake manifold - I simply took a hand held wire brush to it and it flaked off easily.

Ideally the dealer should have removed it when it was being delivered - but I came to know from some real old folks who said that it wasnt removed in salt states to protect the finish of various bits n pieces.

Try a citrus cleaner - it might help. whatever you do dont use anything strongly caustic on aluminium, unless you like oxidised aluminium

Many years ago i worked in a foreign car dealership the Renault & Peugeot cars came in coated in the stuff,the whole outside of the car! We used a product made by Zep i recently saw A Zep product advertised so they are still around, i would google "Zep products" and see what they have. Don

I second the steam clean approach. Whenever I need to clean an old surplus gun that's coated in cosmoline, I clean the metal by leaving it in the sun and scrubbing it with gasoline. I clean the stock by putting it in a black trash bag and leaving it in the sun.

The steam will melt the cosmoline and it will drop off the engine, hopefully into a drip tray that you place underneath. This task is too large to use gasoline effectively. Barring the use of a steam machine, a hot water pressure washer and a degreaser is the second best option. Take care with a pressure washer though, since liquid water can break vacuum lines and wires due to it being incompressible.

Great ideas, I'm starting with goof off today. It's on painted fenders, plastic etc. in the engine compartment.