Clean Start

[Guest bloke]

am lookin to de grease my efi

 

its on a stand and theres loads of holes and wires

 

whats the best way????

[Guest Ant]

Remove the wires, block up the holes, and use de-greaser.

 

I put the exhaust manifold on to prevent water getting in there, and I made something to bolt to the inlet manifold side from a piece of wood. Use the manidolf to mark where you want the holes for the studs, and then bolt it on. It should seal well enough.

 

Don't worry about the coolant holes - degreaser and water in those won't make much odds. Just flush it with water when you've finished.

 

Ant

[Guest Fred2b]

I made up some temporary legs for my engine and stood it in the courtyard. I used about 2 litre of 'GUNK' degreaser applied by brush and elbow grease. Left it for an hour and washed it off with the Karcher pressure washer. It comes out very well but depends how much work you are prepared to put in. As Ant says block up the inlets and remove the wiring first.

Regards

Fred

[Guest Ant]

I'm not sure I'd recommend using a pressure washer. A classic problem using these on machinery is that they spray water into the bearing seals and remove the oil / grease which you need in there next time it's started up.

 

Can be used, but be careful. I guess it depends on how much of a re-build you're planning on too.

 

Ant

[Guest bloke]

i want to do the bare minimum rebuild now and save up!

 

ta for your replies

[Guest Jim Castle]

be careful with the pressure washer. Some guys at work washed the engine down for me. Even though it had been sealed up, they manged to get about 6 pints of water in through the rocker cover breather. When i opened up a few months later ... ugh!

 

PS Wilkinsons were selling off cans of Gunk for £1.99 the other week.

[Spannerman]

If you have a poundland near by they do

a pump up garden spray for a £ would you believe

spray the gunk and leave for 1/2 hour to soak

works well get it in all the bits you cannot get at.

wash off

[Guest mickmellors]

I too would steer away from using the pressure washer - its too easy to get carried away and let rip - boys with toys - you know what I mean.

 

A cautionary note with sprayers of any type - dont have the spray setting at too fine a mist or you get a lot of airbourne spray which you will end up breathing in (NOT good) and like virtually all petroleum based substances it is carcinogenic (spelling?) also if you are doing it in the garage everything will be coated by the mist. If you are doing it outside the slightest breeze will carry it - dont have washing on the line or it will stink ! !

 

I once made the mistake of spraying real creosote on a 25 yard section of 6 foot fence and the overspray killed about a quarter of the plants in my garden and next doors too ! !

 

I think a simple dust mask would be sensible minimum protection if spraying.

 

The gunk might perish seals in the sprayer but at £1 each buy a couple extra as spares.

 

Being a bit of a tight wad ( I prefer 'financially efficient' ) I collected all the yuk in a large tray under the engine and then strained the resulting slurry through a tundish stuffed with an old pillowcase and used the liquid again with no aparent loss of effectiveness.

 

I blanked everything off as already described by others above and then used the sprayer again with cold plain water first and then with hot water with a good slug of meths in it. This was very effective.

 

I used engine enamel bought from a show for £5 a litre. It goes on nicely straight on to the casting and looks nice. A second coat would have given superb results but I used some of the emamel on other donor parts and didnt have enough for a second coat - lesson learned !

[Guest bloke]

i have started to scrape as much c--p off the block tonite so that minimal gunk needed hopefully

 

gunk is horrible stuff though, stinks the drains out

 

does it perrish rubber etc? i'm wantin to strip as little from the block as poss, have taken the hoses off but what about any oil seals it may drip onto?

 

thanks again for your replies and i cant wait to get this bit over

[Guest TerryBarry]

I've got this large plastic tray (used for mixing quantities of mortar / concrete) I think it's a "Tuff Spot" from Wickes.

Placed this under engine on stand and used small stiff brush and kerosene (heating fuel) to clean off most of gunge. The tray prevents the solvent from spreading across the garage floor.

Just don't take time off for the odd fag whilst working on it .

GUNK has advantage of being non-flammable once hosed off with water - but in raw state is a detergent dispersed in white spirit and is flammable.

Terry

[Guest bloke]

ta for all your advice guys

 

used bits of all ie gunk power spray wooden seals and the lump is clean enough

 

should be ready to start to build soon!!! and cleanly at last