I’m going replace the valve cover gaskets on one of my cars. The job is easy enough and only requires removing about 10 parts overall. The issue I don’t know how to resolve is how to clean the valve cover itself. It has about 180 thousand miles worth of blow by and oily gloop on it.
Any suggestions on what to use to clean the stuff off the valve cover and then how do I dispose of the liquid(s) used for cleaning?

~Thanks~

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Toyota is a leader only because their drivers block everyone behind them. Oh what a feeling.

I clean them with hot water and mean green cleaner, aided with a parts brush.

The stuff can remove varnished oil like no-ones business.

You can also buy a bucket of carby clean and use that to clean the cover. I have also used mopar combustion chamber cleaner on some parts, It can lift hard baked carbon off if the item is hot.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

link, try Gunk to clean the valve covers. Place the crud in newspaper inside a plastic bag and toss into the trash.

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Fred Hoelzle

I use gasoline,cheap real good.Use left over gas to kill weeds.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

Probably way over kill, but I got mine polished to a chrome finish for $100 bucks.

Once you clean it, it will corrode....

I've had good luck with screwing it to a board and using a pressure washer.

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$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

Thanks for the many suggestions.

I don’t want to take the valve cover anywhere to have it done due to the time involvement. Guess I’ll use some form of degreaser from a local auto parts store along with a large enough tank with lots of paper as a backing and then ball up the mess and put it in the trash..........and hope it doesn’t spontaneously explode before the trash removal comes....

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Toyota is a leader only because their drivers block everyone behind them. Oh what a feeling.

Take the offending valve cover and degreaser of choice to a manual car wash and hose it off there. That way you don't make a hugantic mess in your garage

Simple Green or LA's Awsome(Dollar store) are very good degreasers.

If your valve cover is aluminum and has any corrosion or oxidation a very good product if you can source it, is Flitz Industrial Strength Aluminum Preclean. About $15 for a 16 oz. spray bottle but it does wonders for things like intake manifolds, valve covers and other cast aluminum engine parts. It leaves a protectant film as well.

Cool added tips.

I missed the first reference to a green cleaner but read the 2nd one referencing “Simple Green” and then found the first when I re-read the thread. I like that it is not highly flammable (at least I don’t think it is) and that i have some around the house.

Taking it to a u wash is also a good idea but I’m too lazy to find one.

Regarding corrosion risk for the valve covers, is this a real concern for a valve cover? I don’t care about the aesthetics so much as just getting the gloop off. The top of the engine including the valve covers is covered by a big plastic thingie. The source for the oil build up is the valve cover gasket so once it has been replaced I hope it will not be a problem for a while.

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Toyota is a leader only because their drivers block everyone behind them. Oh what a feeling.

x2 if you don't want to pressure wash. Simple green will etch aluminum if you let it sit long enough(hours...days...etc.)

LA's totally awesome seems like a gimmic but it's really strong.

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$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment