Use oven cleaner to degrease a grimey engine?
 

I was wondering if oven cleaner would do a good job cleaning a greasy engine. I know it'll really get baked on stuff in an oven. There's stuff on a engine that gets so baked on that plain ol' degreaser won't cut.
Anyone try?

NB It's causitc
 

Therefore, I would keep it OFF any rubber or plastic.

Oh, it will clean it up alright. Right down to the bare metal. :D

So it'll take any paint off a block? What would it do to aluminium?

Danger, Warning, Do Not Use It...
 

DANGER, WARNING, DO NOT USE IT...
Oven cleaner strips aluminum to bare unprotected metal, and the surface will corrode horribly within weeks and become pitted in months.

This is a rotten trick that unethical used car sales people use... :mad:






Have a great day.

Thanks Hunter!

I agree.

...to do what? Why would they want to make their junk cars look worse? Obviously I've missed the point, please explain. :confused:

In the meantime, yes, oven cleaner is nasty stuff.

I have the best luck with Gunk ,then hook the hose to the Hot water heater and rinse.Then I spray it with simple green and rinse again,works very very good.Johnny:D

I think the idea is, it looks brilliantly clean right after he does it, and when you go to buy the car it looks great. Then after you buy it and have it for a little while, it starts to corrode and fall apart. But you've already bought it and you're up the creek.

Yeah I've had luck with Gunk. You really have to use a ton of it, at least in my experience, but if you do it enough it cuts the grease pretty well.

ive used engine degreaser on the engine itself and it worked just fine. For the gunk/grease/sludge everywere else i used brake cleaner and a pressure washer. Just be careful with rubber lines and plastics as brake cleaner contains chemicals like acetone that eat right through those things.

Use Gunk for the heavy stuff, Simple Green for everything else.

If you don't have any oil leaks and get it clean, Simple Green is more than enough to maintain it.

Exactly
 

Correct. :)


This is why it is a rotten trick that unethical used car sales people use... :mad:

You'd be surprised how little cutting power you need from your cleaning solution if you just gets a good brush in there while you are cleaning the engine.

Use Eagle One aluminum wheel cleaner for coated aluminum surfaces, and use Eagle One chrome wheel cleaner for any strong bare metals, and bare aluminum, and of course, chrome.

Oven cleaner is a good cleaner for old engines composed COMPLETELY of steel and iron. if you have some old box that you just want to clean out good, that will do it. I would not use it on anything resembling a modern Mercedes. Oven cleaner will also take off most kinds of paint as well.

But my favorite of them all is the steam cleaner. It's safe, noncasutic, it isn't hazardous to breathe, and it's easy as all hell to use. It's frickin water people. Use it on anything.