Cleaning grease off tractor

[Stephen Newell]

What does everybody use to clean grease off their tractor?. I am trying to prep my tractor for paint and have been going over it with purple power and high pressure water. I've got most of it clean but there are many trouble spots. I thought I would try something else and bought a can of Gunk original engine de-greaser and I wish I hadn't. The stuff smells like diesel and left a oily film all over the tractor so I'm going to have to start over.

 

[souNdguy]

actually.. you are using what I use.. just in the wrong order

scrape the big stuff off, then

use the petro chemical ... pressure wash.. then use the soap chemical.. purple stuff.. then pressure wash.

repeat steps as needed.

soundguy

 

[showcrop]

Delimonene based cleaners are great degreasers. To prep for paint though, most use institutional oven cleaner in gallons from a restaurant supply type of place.

 

[CNKS]

I pressure wash, may or may not use oven cleaner. Move tractor inside, take off all the parts and remove the rest of it with a scraper and use soap and water or some other cleaner, wire wheel everything, then use wax and grease remover multiple times. You can use oven cleaner if you want, but you still have wire wheel it and then use wax and grease remover until clean, or at least I do, because I have no way to pressure wash inside. There are no shortcuts. It is not easy.

 

[Stephen Newell]

I've taken the sheetmetal off the tractor but its too big a project to completely dismantle the tractor. There is just too many places you can't get to to scrape. I believe the tractor has some oil on it that was put in it when it was built 50 years ago. A previous owner painted over the grease and it stuck. Another problem I might have had is I ran out of Purple Power and picked up some at Walmart. I believe it wasn't the same stuff I get from tractor supply. I then bought the Gunk trying to get something more agressive. I'll try some of these other products you guys recommend. Thanks

 

[Ultradog MN]

After all the cleaners, chemicals, wire wheeling, etc I pressure wash it again. Let it dry. Then just before painting I take a pump sprayer with lacquor thinner and a brush and scrub the whole tractor down and rinse it off good with the lacquor thinner. Let it drip dry onto some floor dry.
My painting skills do leave something to be desired finish wise but I rarely have paint flake off that way.

 

[DScott]

(quoted from post at 17:58:16 09/10/11) What does everybody use to clean grease off their tractor?. I am trying to prep my tractor for paint and have been going over it with purple power and high pressure water. I've got most of it clean but there are many trouble spots. I thought I would try something else and bought a can of Gunk original engine de-greaser and I wish I hadn't. The stuff smells like diesel and left a oily film all over the tractor so I'm going to have to start over.

I use a procedure and chemicals similar to what you are using (de-greaser, oven cleaner, etc.) except I use a hot water pressure washer. I have since bought one but I used to rent one for a half day. The hot water under pressure will cut right through most of that hard greasy funk like a hot knife through butter, squeaky clean right down to the metal. It also gets the little nooks and crannies cleaned out. My regular pressure washer worked pretty good but it would not cut the hard, caked on grease nearly as well and it seemed like I had trouble getting that last little bit of oily film off. Another benefit is that the hot water evaporates much quicker resulting in less surface rusting.

 

[souNdguy]

i manually remove big stuff with a scrapper, and spray down heavy stuff with diesel or similar in a sprayer.. then degrease with a petro chemical like engine brite, then pressure wash, then hit it with a soap degreaser like simple green or purple stuff, then pressure wash again.

soundguy

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have tried serveral ways of cleaning them up.I have found the way Soundguy cleans them about the best way to do it.

 

[Motorcraftman]

Scrape off the Thich crud... then Spray with K-Kerosene... let it set for about Two days.. then Pressure wash... it works really well for me!AND doesn't remove orig. Paint. Larry KF4LKU

 

[Tommy D6-8U]

I scrape, wire brush and then pressure wash with Purple stuff type degreaser. Seems to work OK for me

 

[Spudland_Dave]

All the above are good ideas and I use them too...only difference is the only Degreaser you'll find here in my shop now is B52..."The Brown Bomber"...talk about good stuff. Also washes off cleanly with no residue...so its essentially ready for sanding & painting...

 

[showcrop]

(quoted from post at 06:59:56 09/15/11) All the above are good ideas and I use them too...only difference is the only Degreaser you'll find here in my shop now is B52..."The Brown Bomber"...talk about good stuff. Also washes off cleanly with no residue...so its essentially ready for sanding & painting...

heck out the MSDS it is sodium hydroxide, same as most oven cleaners. Probably just costs more.

 

[MO8N4ME]

(quoted from post at 08:37:04 09/16/11)

(quoted from post at 06:59:56 09/15/11) All the above are good ideas and I use them too...only difference is the only Degreaser you'll find here in my shop now is B52..."The Brown Bomber"...talk about good stuff. Also washes off cleanly with no residue...so its essentially ready for sanding & painting...

heck out the MSDS it is sodium hydroxide, same as most oven cleaners. Probably just costs more.

Easy off oven cleaner 16oz $5.99 = $0.37 per oz Amazon .com

B52 “Brown Bomber” Degreaser 32oz $5.49 = $0.17 per oz Hollander Corp

 

[Spudland_Dave]

I've never bought a small bottle of it...workin on the last little bit of my Gal jug (8.99/gal = .06 Cents/OZ) and I'll be buying a 5 gal pail next (29.99/5 Gals = .04 Cents/OZ)

 

[MO8N4ME]

(quoted from post at 22:57:35 09/16/11) I've never bought a small bottle of it...workin on the last little bit of my Gal jug (8.99/gal = .06 Cents/OZ) and I'll be buying a 5 gal pail next (29.99/5 Gals = .04 Cents/OZ)

That's what I'm going to order, the 5 gallon amount. If you dilute it for light duty cleaning it even gets cheaper.

One of the reviews I read said "it's the ultimate pressure washer cleaner"

 

[charles todd]

B52 sounds like what I'm buying next!

CT

 

[Stephen Newell]

Thanks for all of the advise. I ended up finishing with the cleaning before some of these posts landed. I used the easy off oven cleaner and it cleaned very well. In many applications I wouldn't reccomend it as it took the paint off as well. I also know it contains sodium hydroxide and is very corrosive so I rinsed it many times. Until now purple power has cleaned everything I needed.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

That's what I'm going to order, the 5 gallon amount. If you dilute it for light duty cleaning it even gets cheaper.

One of the reviews I read said "it's the ultimate pressure washer cleaner"

Never tried it IN my pressure washer..I can see it being good for that. and I do dilute it for "everyday" equipment cleaning as well...I have one of the TSC 1 Gal pump sprayers with a 25% mix in it.

 

[Greenfrog]

I have done two tractors, a cub cadet, and a corn planter. I power wash as much as possible, scrape, and spray on Mean Green Degreaser right out of the bottle or dab on some with a paint brush. . Then scrub and scrape, and wash it off. Nice and clean.
Mean grean is biodegradable and it washes off with a hose. I disassemble as much as possible and scrub each part. small parts I tumble in a homemade rock tumbler with degreaser in it and a few handfulls of bolts, nuts, drywall screws and they come out nice and clean.

 

[Anonymous-0]

oven cleaner>pressure wash>simplegreen & toothbrush>pressure wash.....

 

[MO8N4ME]

(quoted from post at 23:03:04 09/27/11)
oven cleaner>pressure wash>simplegreen & toothbrush>pressure wash.....

Hey dave, Did you ever see the movie "No time for Sargents"??

Scrub, scrub, scrub.....waaay to much work with a toothbrush. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Greenfrog]

Yes, I have heard about oven cleaner, but have never tried it. Are there any details on the use of this ??

 

[showcrop]

(quoted from post at 18:17:39 09/15/11)

(quoted from post at 08:37:04 09/16/11)

(quoted from post at 06:59:56 09/15/11) All the above are good ideas and I use them too...only difference is the only Degreaser you'll find here in my shop now is B52..."The Brown Bomber"...talk about good stuff. Also washes off cleanly with no residue...so its essentially ready for sanding & painting...

heck out the MSDS it is sodium hydroxide, same as most oven cleaners. Probably just costs more.

Easy off oven cleaner 16oz $5.99 = $0.37 per oz Amazon .com

B52 “Brown Bomber” Degreaser 32oz $5.49 = $0.17 per oz Hollander Corp

here is probably not a more expensive way to buy oven cleaner than Easy Off. There are many places to get oven cleaner in gallons, and it will be a much cheaper source of sodium hydoxide than your brown bomber.

 

[Stephen Newell]

The directions on the can say to heat the oven a little before using and since I couldn't put my tractor in the oven so I waited until a hot summer afternoon with the tractor in the sun and coated the trouble spots with the oven cleaner and let set for 15 minutes. Note: I had already scraped all I could reach and get off with a putty knife. Then I washed it off with a power washer several times and let dry. I rinsed it several times because the oven cleaner contains sodium hydroxide which is corrosive. The oven cleaner cleaned all of the remaining grease off and much of the paint also. I knew it would do that because I am a furniture refinisher and you've heard of people taking furniture to have dipped in a tank to remove the paint. The chemical in the tank is sodium hydroxide and water. The tanks we have to use are made of stainless steel to keep them from rotting.

 

[hin191]

Don't forget the needle scaler!