I've tried lots of things over the years

Gunk smells like desel so it must be a main ingredient. It works but leaves a residue. Anyone ever tried pure desel?

Dish soap and water works, lots of elbow grease tho.

Simple green works. Lots of elbow grease again. Leaves a residue.

Brake cleaner works ok. Expensive. Ok for small jobs. No residue.

Tool and pats cleaner is the best I have ever seen. Will lift paint quickly. Smells like industrial body shop thinner only more powerfull. Expensive. Great for small jobs.

Laquer thinner. Used it to soak/clean out a snow blower carb. Worked for that. Never tried it on anything else. Heard it works.

Kersoene. Heard it works, never tried it.

Saw a post in another fourm about oven cleaner. Never heard of using that before. I"m pretty sure it can't be used on allum. cause it's caustic.

What is cheap and does well on big jobs like a engine block?

 

power washer hot water

 

That would work but suppose you didn't have one and had to do the old elbow grease method.

Smaller jobs, all the jobs. This is a tread about the chemicals you use and the ones that work best.

 

Dishwasher. Just make sure the bare parts get some sort of rust preventive right after cleaning.

 

that happened to me once, i went out and bought a power washer

 

Pressure washer for everything? They have uses but limits too. What do you do when you have a couple of handfulls of small parts and the pressure washer sends them all over the hood?

The kid down the street with the metal detector won't cut it.

 

I use deisel, oven cleaner, sand blaster and a cheap cleaner in that order. If that does not do it, WHAT WILL!
We have a HUGE tank of diesel fluid (500 gallon) so when I need cleaner, I fill up a metal bucket.

PS. I am not a hick.